Artiglio Famiglia Arc
by MHYHM
Summary: The Millefiore has been defeated and the Vongola are finally back in present time. Unknown to them, trouble is brewing and coming their way. Will Vongola stand or fall? It all started with a note.  Friendship, family, slight humour.
1. Target 1:  The Request

**Our Artiglio Project starts with a small group of friends who decided to incorporate themselves into anime/manga life. In order to achieve this, we created names, designed clothing, styles, personalities etc. This is the story of the Artiglio Famiglia, which is an extension (another arc) of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.**

**We do not own any KHR or any other known anime/manga characters but we do own all our OC's. (OC haters, this is not the story for you seeing as half of the characters will be made up…)**

**Ok, this is the official story of the **_**Artiglio Famiglia**_**. I'll attempt to keep updates at a chapter a week, unlike my normal fanfic account… but I'm not promising anything as all of us are still in school. Now that's over and done with, sit back, prepare your eyes and enjoy the read. :D**

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Target 1: The Request

"Hiii! I'm late for school!" Tsuna exclaimed as he rushed out of his house, almost tripping over Lambo, who had fallen asleep by the front door. Gokudera wasn't present when he rounded the corner of the street but someone else was.

"Yo, Tsuna!" Yamamoto greeted as he ran alongside the brown haired boy.

"Ohayo, Yamamoto."

Yamamoto flashed a bright smile before concentrating on arriving at school before a certain Disciplinary Committee member decided to "bite them to death". They sprinted up the stairs in the school and slammed the door of their class open before looking around cautiously and sighing in relief.

"Saaafe," Tsuna breathed, moving shakily towards his seat with Yamamoto at his heels.

"Ohayo, Jyuudaime!"

Tsuna turned around to find himself face-to-face with a silver-haired boy who was beaming, "Ohayo, Gokudera-kun."

At that, the teacher walked right in and asked everyone to take their seats. Gokudera grinned one last time before returning to his seat and Yamamoto patted him on the back before making his way to his own.

At lunch break, Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto were walking along the corridor before a wall opened up beside them, revealing a baby and a very homey looking lounge.

"Reborn! What on earth are you doing here?" Tsuna exclaimed. A few passers-by looked at the group of four curiously before continuing on to their destinations.

"An important letter has arrived from the Cervello Family. Gather the guardians up after school," Reborn said, completely ignoring Tsuna's question.

"Cervello? What would the Cervello want to do with us?" Gokudera asked while Yamamoto simply looked completely lost.

All Reborn did was close the door he created in the wall and, in response, Gokudera's fingers started itching for dynamite.

Tsuna, knowing how much damage Gokudera could make, attempted to calm him down while Yamamoto laughed.

The end of school arrived all too soon and not long after, Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei and Chrome were cramped up in Tsuna's small bedroom. Tsuna, Gokudera and Reborn sat around the small table in the centre of the room, Ryohei sat on the bed and Chrome decided to stand in a small corner, holding her trident protectively. Hibari had refused to attend the meeting, muttering something about "hate" and "crowding" and Lambo… well…

"_GYAHAHAHA! LAMBO HAS ARRIVED!"_

"_Shut up, Stupid Cow," Reborn said as Leon transformed into a gun._

_BOOM!_

"What's this about, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked.

Reborn took out a letter and started reading.

'Dear Vongola Decimo and Guardians,

We, the Cervello Family, humble allies of the Vongola Family, request help against a small, but growing mafia Family. This Family, called Artiglio, started attacking weaker Families and have defeated them one by one. Recently one of our allies was attacked, leaving behind corpses and a raided hideout. We fear that we will be next and we wish to act before it is too late.

Yours faithfully,

The Cervello Famiglia'

"Those damn Artiglio bastards. Who do they think they are? Naming their Family "Artiglio"," Gokudera scoffed.

"What does it mean?" Yamamoto asked.

"Talon, in Italian."

"They're taking it too extremely," Ryohei said.

Ignoring the fact that it hardly made any sense in relation to the previous conversation, Reborn turned to Tsuna, "What is your decision, Tsuna?"

Tsuna held his hands up in defence, "I told you! I don't want to be a bo-"

"Your allies are being slaughtered quickly," Reborn interrupted, "You will have to confront these people sooner or later."

"Reborn-san is right, Jyuudaime. Those people will only get stronger and when we do face them, it will be a tough fight."

"I agree as well, Tsuna," Yamamoto piped out.

All five pairs of eyes stared at the brown haired boy who sighed in defeat, "Not today. Sometime else."

"Good choice, Tsuna," Reborn nodded approvingly.

It was getting late when the meeting finished. Chrome had left first, apologising and saying she had to get back to Kokuyo Land before Ken and Chikusa got worried. Ryohei had left a bit after because Kyoko had called and asked him to go home for dinner. Yamamoto's father had phoned not long after that, asking for help to close down the sushi shop and Gokudera stayed behind before Bianchi appeared (with no goggles) and dragged him back to his apartment.

Tsuna sighed. It had been quite an eventful evening. Thinking of the Artiglio Family and what fearsome monsters it consisted of, he drifted into an uneasy sleep.

**o.o.o.o**

"Ohayo, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera called as he jogged over to stand beside Tsuna, on his _right _side, no less.

"Ohayo, Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto," Tsuna replied as Yamamoto came into view, holding his baseball bat like a bag.

"Yo, Tsuna!"

"Don't you dare call Jyuudaime so casually!"

Yamamoto laughed as a routine scuffle started once more. Suddenly, there was a rustle in the trees overhead. A small blue object, the size of a ring, dropped from the sky and stuck into the ground, Tsuna walked up to it cautiously and peered at the shiny object before Gokudera yelled a loud, "GET DOWN!" and he was pushed away. Moments later, the object exploded, showering the area with sharp shrapnel and dust.

"Hiii!"

Yamamoto stood very still, wide-eyed and alarmed. He looked upwards and Tsuna and Gokudera followed suit. Hundreds of little, round bombs dropped down like hail, exploding a few seconds after touching the ground. Immediately, the three of them sprinted in the direction of the school, narrowly missing shards of broken bombshell.

The barrage stopped a few metres away from the area and the three of them sighed in relief. Tsuna examined one of the blue objects that had failed to explode and realised that it wasn't a bomb but…

"Icicles?"

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**Chapter no. 1 over~**

**I know it's short but originally, the first two chapters were meant to be joined… but then, we're like, "nah, let's leave it as a cliffie". XD**

**By the way, it's set between the Future Arc and the Shimon Arc…**

**My critical editor, 82, didn't feel like adding a message so… yeah…**

**In the next chapter, 19 will appear! 19, not 18… but 19 is just as awesome of course. XD**

**Till then, adieu~**

**- 37 (MHYHM)**

**Extra Note: If anyone manages to understand these numbers, my imaginary hat will go off to you. I will be amazed. **


	2. Target 2: The Note

**19: Hi...I feel sorry for Tsuna...**

**37: … She didn't say much… Anyway, no reviews! I'm so disappointed… ah well, there were quite a few hits…**

**Now, onto chapter 2~**

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Target 2: The Note

Gokudera walked over to Tsuna's side, picking the icicle up from the ground. He smashed the object onto a rock and it shattered, revealing a strange powder. He was a bomb user who lived up to his nickname "Smokin' Bomb Hayato". Immediately, he recognised the sand like substance splattered on the rock to be gunpowder. Another rock nearby opened up and Reborn stepped out.

"Reborn!" Tsuna said, startled by his sudden appearance.

"It seems that the Artiglio are on the move, Tsuna." Reborn stepped off his rock and faced Tsuna, "It would be wise to be very careful from now on."

"W-What do you mean?"

Before the Sun Arcobaleno could reply, there was a soft drawl from behind them.

"Why are you still not in school, herbivores? Hurry up or I'll bite you to death."

Tsuna jumped at the ever so familiar catchphrase and turned to face the dark-haired boy standing quietly, cross-armed, behind him.

"Ciaossu, Hibari."

Hibari nodded in recognition and swiftly walked away, his jacket trailing behind him.

"We really should hurry up, Tsuna, before we're late," Yamamoto pointed out.

"Un."

**o.o.o.o**

Chrome ran straight forward as a shower of sharp needles cascaded from the sky. She was in the city to get some food to take back to Kokuyo Land but the moment she stepped out of the grocery store, her cheek was grazed and had started to bleed.

She immediately sprinted towards an open area to prevent harm from coming to ordinary civilians and continued to move to her destination through instinct. The needles continued to drop down, clattering quietly against the ground and only stopped being firing when Chrome arrived in a familiar neighbourhood.

Lambo jumped out of the house's second floor window, followed by I-Pin, who was yelling something unintelligible. The front door burst open and Tsuna flew through the air before landing directly in front of Chrome. Reborn stood in the doorway, putting Leon back onto his hat.

"B-Boss…" Chrome stuttered.

Tsuna looked up to see Chrome's worried face, "Ah! Chrome! What are you doing here?"

She opened her mouth to reply before she suddenly felt faint and dropped to the ground.

"Chrome? Chrome!" A quiet voice called from the darkness.

She opened her eyes, revealing Tsuna's bedroom ceiling. Turning her head slightly, she saw a man in a white lab coat closing a suitcase full of syringes.

"Thankyou, Dr. Shamal," the voice said.

"You should be. It's the first woman that you've asked me to treat," a lower voice replied.

"Really, thankyou."

The man in the lab coat nodded, "She might become a bit feverish later on so I suggest you leave her in bed for a couple of days. That poison wasn't ordinary. It managed to get her in that state with just a small graze. It spread quite a bit too, with all her running." Chrome watched as the man left the room.

"Are you ok, Chrome?"

She turned to face her boss who was sitting on the floor near the bed.

"I'm fine. Thankyou, Boss."

Tsuna scratched the back of his head, "What exactly happened to you?"

Chrome closed her eyes momentarily, feeling a little bit queasy before opening them again. "I went to buy groceries when a needle scratched my cheek. The needles kept coming until I arrived here," she explained.

"Dr. Shamal said that the needles had poison in them and that he was going to investigate a bit. He also told you to rest."

Chrome nodded and sat up, "I'll go back to Kokuyo Land."

"You should stay here and rest!"

All he received as a response was a shake of her head and a weak smile, "I need to get the food to Ken and Chikusa."

"… Alright. But stay in bed right after that."

"I will, Boss."

At that, she stood up, gathered her plastic bags of groceries and left.

"The Artiglio Family strike again. I wouldn't be surprised if more things happen soon."

Tsuna jumped 5 metres into the air, "Reborn! Don't startle me like that."

"It's your fault for not realising I was there."

Tsuna sighed before standing up, "What are they planning to do?"

Reborn shook his head, "It's your job to find out, Tsuna. I also advise you to check and see if the rest of the guardians are ok."

Tsuna nodded, picking up his phone and finding Gokudera's number in his contacts list.

_Ring ring. Ring ring._

"_What?"_ an annoyed voice spoke from the other end.

"Gokudera-kun!"

"_A-Ah! Jyuudaime! How are you?"_ The voice brightened up considerably and Tsuna smiled strangely.

"Chrome got attacked. This time it was poison needles."

"_Those bastards. Wait until I get my hands on them…"_

"Well I just called to see if you were fine. I still need to call Onii-san and Yamamoto."

"_Ok, Jyuudaime. Don't forget to finish your homework"_

"I will. Thanks for reminding me."

"_No problem, Jyuudaime. Bye!"_

"Bye…"

The phone call was cut off and Tsuna stared at the earpiece strangely.

_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ring._

"_Hello?"_

"Ah! Yamamoto!"

"_It's Tsuna isn't it? Hi."_

Tsuna could almost feel the smile radiating out of the phone.

"The Artiglio Family attacked Chrome. She's fine, though."

"_Oh… Who's next?"_

"Yamamoto!"

"_Sorry, sorry. Ah. Dad's calling me. I have to go. See you, Tsuna!"_

"Yeah, bye."

_Beep. Beep._

Tsuna sighed. One more phone call and a trip to the school roof.

_Ring ring._

"_Moshi moshi?"_

"K-Kyoko-chan?"

"_Ah! Tsuna-kun! What is it?"_

"Is Onii-san there?"

"_Sorry, he's in the shower right now. Do you want me to leave a message?"_

"No, it's fine. Sorry to disturb you."

"_It's ok."_

"Well, bye."

"_Yep, bye!"_

Tsuna put his phone down and donned his jacket. He left his home and walked in the direction of the school. Upon arrival, he immediately went upstairs to the roof, knowing full well that Hibari would be there.

"H-Hibari-san? Are you here?"

There was no reply except for a small rustle in the trees.

"Hibari-san?"

"What are you doing on school property after hours, herbivore?"

"Hiii!"

Hibari stood right behind Tsuna, brandishing his tonfas.

"If you don't reply, I will bite you to death."

"N-Nothing, Hibari-san. See you later!"

Tsuna bowed once and sprinted downstairs and out of the school, leaving Hibari looking at the dust trail he had left from moving so quickly. Shrugging, he put his tonfas away and sat down with Hibird flapping its wings right beside him.

**o.o.o.o**

The next morning, Tsuna trudged downstairs to see Gokudera and Yamamoto, along with Lambo, I-Pin and Reborn gathered around the dining table. It was Saturday morning, meaning there was no school, but the look on Reborn's face meant that it was not going to be a happy day.

"Ohayo, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said. He continued to look at his bowl of rice when Tsuna muttered his own greeting.

Gokudera and Yamamoto muttered their greetings and stayed silent until Tsuna burst with uneasiness, "What the hell happened?"

His mother, Nana, gave a cheerful smile as she set Tsuna's breakfast on the table and walked out of the kitchen, saying something about shopping and ice-cream. Lambo and I-Pin jumped in happiness and ran away, right behind her.

Reborn finally looked up from his breakfast, "We got a message from Artiglio. We've already told Ryohei and Chrome," he said grimly.

Tsuna's eyes widened. He took the letter from Reborn's outstretched hand and opened it shakily.

_Dear Vongola Family,_

_We have received word of your interference from trusted sources and challenge you to a fight. The location will be at the northern entrance of Namimori Forest, 10am sharp, two days from now. If you do not appear, we will eliminate your allies and we will track down your hideout in Italy._

_We hope to receive a good response._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Artiglio Famiglia_

Gokudera 'tsk'-ed from his seat, "Those bastards have gone over their heads. We'll show them not to mess with the Jyuudaime."

At that, the phone rang and Tsuna got up from his seat to answer it, "Moshi moshi? Ah, Chrome-san… What? Oh, no it's fine… No, really. Get well soon… Yeah, bye."

Tsuna turned to the rest of them, who were looking at him expectantly. "It was Chrome. She's got a high fever from the after-effects of Dr. Shamal's cure and she won't be able to make it to the fight," he explained.

"Che, we're unlucky. I'm guessing the Stupid Cow wouldn't be able to fight either. How strong is that Family, exactly?" Gokudera muttered to himself.

"So, Tsuna. What do you say?" Reborn asked.

He knew that Yamamoto and Gokudera would defy him if he attempted to refuse so Tsuna merely nodded his head slowly.

Reborn smirked, "Hibari also knows of the fight, of course, and he will be there. The lure of it all is too strong. Yamamoto, Gokudera, prepare as much as you can. Tsuna, you come with me. We will be in a big fight tomorrow."

Gokudera and Yamamoto nodded and left the house, determination pasted on both their faces. Tsuna and Reborn watched as they left before Reborn's eyes glinted evilly.

"Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna turned to him warily. Reborn landed a kick straight on his forehead, causing the brown-haired boy to stumble and fall, "What was that for?"

"Your training starts now."

"NOOOOO!"

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**Next chapter – Target 3: Training**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**


	3. Target 3: Training

**37: Yay! Reviews and a whole bunch of alerts and story/author favourites! Thankyou for the constructive criticism and support! **

**jhmoneytreeshoe: Lovely name and thankyou for that review. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Mukuro will appear but it will take quite some time. As for dialogue, I'll attempt to cut down a bit but I can't really promise anything. Also, I'm not a very good fighting-scene author so the fighting might be a bit of a disappointment… but I'll let you be the judge of that. XD

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Target 3: Training

"Keep running, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn commanded, riding a small vehicle beside Tsuna, who was running.

"R-Reborn! I've been running for an hour straight! Can't I take a rest?" Tsuna wheezed, dragging his feet along the ground as if they were weights.

"You don't know how strong the Artiglio are. You can't afford to underestimate anything!"

"But we all have box weapons and know how to use flames! They wouldn't know that unless they went to the future!"

"Be quiet and keep running, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn landed a kick squarely in between Tsuna's shoulder blades, causing the boy to fall face-first onto the floor.

"Ow…" Tsuna muttered, rubbing his nose in pain.

"The Cervello Family mentioned that they were a new family. How would you know where they came from? You have no knowledge of how these people fight."

"But there're the icicles and the poison needles!"

"What if those were random weapons? What if it was a trap to lure you into thinking that you knew how they fought?"

Tsuna thought for a second, "I guess you're right…"

"Good. Now you know this, keep running and don't you dare stop, or…" Reborn took Leon off his hat and the green chameleon transformed into a small handgun. Pointing the gun haphazardly near the brown-haired boy's neck, Tsuna let out a quiet, "hiii," before dragging himself up off the floor and continuing his run.

**o.o.o.o**

Yamamoto stood still and sheathed his katana as the hay bundles around him split neatly into two. His swordsmanship had advanced greatly during the time he was in the future but of course, like in baseball, there was always room for improvement.

His eyes closed as he thought about the Artiglio Family and how the people within that Family killed for fun. Gripping the hilt of his Shigure Kintoki tightly, he unsheathed the katana once more and continued his training.

**o.o.o.o**

Gokudera cursed inwardly as the paper airplanes he threw a few seconds ago continued their flights towards the ground, unscathed. He watched the smoke disappear before sighing and turned around to make more planes.

"Still not getting it entirely right, Gokudera?" a voice from behind him asked.

"You again?"

Dr. Shamal laughed, "I hear the people you're gonna battle are strong."

"They wouldn't have flames and the Sistema C.A.I can easily block ordinary attacks."

"Don't be so arrogant."

"Tch, go away. I'm busy right now. Go find a woman or something, perverted old man." Gokudera threw the three planes from where he stood and let them drift a bit before taking out his dynamite and throwing. This time, two out of the three planes exploded but the last twirled slowly to the ground.

Dr. Shamal let out a low whistle. Coincidentally, Bianchi happened to be walking past and Gokudera heard a loud, "BIANCHI-CHYAN!" before the doctor sped away.

Gokudera shook his head, and went back to folding more planes.

**o.o.o.o**

"EXTREEEME!" Ryohei yelled as he hit his punching bag as hard as he could. He hardly had any clue of what was going to happen in two days time. To sum up what he understood, he would say "bad, strong people". Those three words were enough for him.

**o.o.o.o**

"Have you had enough yet?" Dino called out to the Head of the Disciplinary Committee.

"Hn. I'll bite you to death," Hibari replied, manoeuvring his tonfas expertly.

"Ooh, scary."

**o.o.o.o**

"I feel dead…" Tsuna groaned as he slumped unceremoniously on his bed.

"Don't complain, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said, kicking Lambo, who had decided to plan a sneak attack on the other baby's unsuspecting back.

"But all I did was run for the whole day! How is that even training?"

Reborn smirked knowingly before climbing into his hammock of a bed and falling asleep immediately. Tsuna stared at the Arcobaleno before turning off his bedroom's light and climbing into bed. It wasn't long until Tsuna's stomach let out a low growl.

"Ugh, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast this morning," Tsuna thought, climbing out of bed. Sleep would have to wait.

He trudged downstairs slowly, making his way to the kitchen. He yawned as he felt along the wall for the light switch. A yellow glow filled the small room and Tsuna walked over to the fridge.

"Jyuudaime!"

"HIIII!" Tsuna jumped and swivelled around to see Gokudera, in all his glory, perched on one of the dining room seats, "Gokudera-kun! What are you doing here at this hour and how did you get in here…?"

"The perverted old man found something about the poison," Gokudera replied, ignoring Tsuna's second question.

"What about it?"

"He said it was a very old, plant based poison. He wasn't able to find out where it came from, though."

"Did he mention anything else?"

Gokudera shook his head. "He's still going to look into it but he doubts that he'll find out any more information."

"Ok, thanks for telling me this Gokudera-kun."

"Anytime, Jyuudaime. Oh yeah, how was training with Reborn-san?"

Tsuna suddenly felt his limbs go weak at the mention of Reborn's name. "Perfectly fine."

"That's great. Now, you need to rest, Jyuudaime. We're going to win tomorrow." At that, Gokudera grinned encouragingly and left through the house's front door.

"Well… that was weird," Tsuna thought as he proceeded in opening the fridge door.

"Plant based, huh?"

"REBORN! STOP DOING THAT!"

"Be quiet, Dame-Tsuna. Gokudera is right. You've got a big fight tomorrow. Go to sleep."

Tsuna sighed in defeat. At this rate, he was never going to be allowed to get anything to eat. Ignoring his grumbling stomach, Tsuna trudged back upstairs, yawned, and started snoring, leaving Reborn all alone in the kitchen.

"Explosive icicles and plant based poison needles… I wonder what they're up to…" Reborn muttered to himself before turning off the light in the kitchen and going back upstairs.

**o.o.o.o**

The next morning came by all too early. Reborn and Tsuna ate their breakfast in complete silence. Tsuna gathered all his equipment and his mother told him a quick "have a safe trip" before the two headed out.

Tsuna rounded the corner of his home to see Gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei, standing on the pathway, completely stocked with rings and box weapons while Hibari sat quietly on the rooftop of a house. He had come, as predicted by Reborn. Once he had seen the two of them coming, he jumped off the roof and landed gracefully on the ground.

Reborn hopped off Tsuna's shoulder. "Everyone, fight with your dying will."

All six of them turned heel, in the direction of Namimori Forest, the location of the Vongola vs Artiglio Battle.

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**Next chapter – Target 4: Information**

**It's gonna start being confusing in the next chapter because our OC's are entering! There will be a basic character list on the bottom of that chapter and there's already some information on our profile page.**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**


	4. Target 4: Information

**Once again, thankyou for the reviews! This chapter is somewhat short but I promise the next one is a lot longer!**

**And yes, there are only 5 main OC's. To be honest, Lambo annoys the hell out of me so he's not in this particular fight. XD**

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Target 4: Battle

There was quite some time before the battle was to start when the Vongola Family arrived, as they had left early to make sure that they wouldn't be the whole duration of the trip to the forest, everyone was silent. Even happy-go-lucky Yamamoto had a dead straight face on. The forest loomed ahead while Tsuna suddenly stopped walking, making everyone else look at him in question.

"Be careful, everyone."

All of them nodded. Even though it wasn't mentioned, it was definite that it was a fight-to-the-death battle. Yamamoto gripped his Shigure Kintoki and the bamboo bat transformed into a sleek katana. Gokudera calculated how many dynamites he had hidden on himself and how long he would last before having to battle with box weapons. Ryohei tightened the bandages around his hands and Hibari silently took out his tonfas.

"Let's go," Tsuna said nervously.

The group entered the forest. The sky was a bright blue with a couple of wispy clouds floating by. Right now, the sun was out, shining bright, but the dark storm cloud far in the distance signified that it was soon going to rain.

Tsuna, who was walking at the front of the group, stopped abruptly, making Gokudera, who was right behind him, almost collide into his back. Gokudera moved to Tsuna's side and saw that the boy's eyes were wide open.

"What is it, Jyuudaime?" Gokudera asked, turning to see what Tsuna saw. Immediately, he froze as well. "What is this joke?" He yelled.

In front of the group, was a maze. A massive maze with five entrances. Yamamoto chuckled weakly, "One-on-one, huh?"

"I guess we will have to split up," Tsuna said, "Pick a door and don't look back. We'll go in when it's exactly 10 o'clock. We have some time until then."

The group nodded and Hibari let out a quiet, "I don't take commands, herbivore."

"Wait."

Everyone turned to look at the baby who was now standing on the ground. In his hands, was a small, tan manila folder.

"What's that, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked, looking at the folder curiously.

"Information from our allies on the Artiglio Famiglia. There isn't much because their family is rather small."

The group blinked and moved over to huddle around Reborn. Hibari went to stand elsewhere, seemingly uninterested in what was happening but still stayed in tune to what was said. The baby opened up the folder, taking out five sheets of paper. On each piece of paper, a picture and a small list of information could be seen. Tsuna picked up the top two sheets and started to read.

_Name/Alias:_ Death God of the Snow

_Affiliates: _Unknown

_Status:_ Alive

The first sheet's picture showed a girl with emotionless purple eyes and silver hair that billowed past her waist. She was completely weapon-less except for the small penknife that hung from her neck. Scarily enough, she was looking directly at the lens of the camera, giving Tsuna the creeps.

_Name/Alias:_ Hell's Ice Devil

_Affiliates:_ Unknown

_Status:_ Unknown

The second picture showed a young boy wearing a turtleneck vest. His black hair was tied in a short ponytail and his dark blue eyes reflected the flash of the camera dimly. He, too, was completely weapon-less and looked directly at the camera. Tsuna shivered involuntarily.

Yamamoto picked up the other three sheets, leaving the manila folder in Reborn's hands, empty. He gave one of the sheets to Gokudera, and the other one to Ryohei. Yamamoto then glanced at the sheet lying innocently in his hands.

_Name/Alias:_ Healing Angel

_Affiliates:_ Unknown

_Status:_ Alive

A smiling brown-haired girl looked away from the direction of the camera and to the direction of the sky. Her hazel eyes held an emotion of amusement at whatever she was looking at. Yamamoto followed her line of sight up a tree and in the very top of the picture, there was an object handing down, similar to an animal's tail or a coil of rope.

Gokudera's eyes zipped across the page as he read the information in less than a second.

_Name/Alias:_ Fallen Angel

_Affiliates:_ Unknown

_Status:_ Alive

The pictured revealed a black eyed, dark-blue haired girl who was looking at the sky as well, seemingly annoyed at something. Her hand was outstretched and in a position as if she had just thrown something. The surroundings of the picture were the same as that of the "Healing Angel"s. Gokudera dimly wondered what the two were looking at. Trying to get something off the tree, perhaps?

_Name/Alias:_ Gun Trickster

_Affiliates: _Unknown

_Status: _Alive

Ryohei looked at the picture that accompanied the small list of information. The girl in the photo had spiky purple hair and looked as if she was laughing her head off. He couldn't see her eyes but he did notice a small holster holding a green gun, strung around her waist.

"Those people will be your opponents," Reborn said, placing out a hand for the papers, "Don't let looks deceive you." The profiles were returned in silence and Reborn put the folder away.

"They look completely harmless," Yamamoto pointed out. The others nodded in agreement. They were almost the complete opposite of what the group had imagined. Where was the monstrous bloodlust? Where were the horrifying smirks? Such simple pictures were taken and they were almost as though they had been taken out of a normal life.

At that point, the quiet beeping of Yamamoto's watch sounded. It was 10 o'clock. The short beeping signalled that the scheduled time had arrived.

Automatically, the whole group moved, picking an entrance and standing in front of it. Hibari walked straight in, the smirk on his face was screaming, "I will bite my opponent to death." Tsuna put on his gloves and swallowed a pill. Immediately, his flame flickered awake on his forehead and his eyes glowed a light orange. He whispered, "Good luck to you all," before he and Reborn walked boldly into the maze.

Ryohei yelled, "EXTREME!" at the top of his lungs and sprinted headlong into his designated space. Yamamoto and Gokudera listened to the echo of Ryohei's determination before entering the maze themselves.

With this, the major battle between the Vongola and the Artiglio Families commences.

* * *

**Editor's Note: The very very first sentence was a sentence that 37 and I had disagreed slightly on. Read it and check if it works as it is please. Thank you! ^^ [[If you thought there was nothing wrong with it anyways, don't bother checking and completely disregard this note. xD]]**

**Next chapter – Target 5: Battle Part 1 – Tsuna and Hibari**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Should I paste this OC list in every chapter or are these 5 characters easy enough to remember? I get confused with other people's OC's easily…**


	5. Target 5: Battle Part 1

**Woopa: Thankyou for the suggestions! However, even though it was completely unintentional, the pairing suggestions made me laugh. We have something very special in store for one of the characters and once it's revealed, you will see why I laughed. xDD As for the pairing suggestions on the whole, unfortunately, we plan to keep the story pairing free.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Target 5: Battle Part 1 – Tsuna and Hibari

"Keep moving, Tsuna. There will definitely be someone here," Reborn whispered while Tsuna twisted and turned around the endless maze.

"I know."

It wasn't long after, that he saw a flash of silver. Tsuna looked around, alerted, "Gokudera? Was that you?" There was no answer.

At the very end of the entrance Tsuna had picked, was a large, empty field. There was definitely someone waiting around here. Once again, there was another flash of silver. Almost immediately, a large silver object came swinging into view. Tsuna blocked the blade with his gloved hands, digging his feet into the ground to prevent from moving backwards.

The weight lifted and swung down again almost immediately. Tsuna pushed the blade back and collected his flames into each of his hands, shooting upwards in the process. He looked down at his attacker and his eyes widened in surprise.

On the ground, with a face of slight surprise that matched his, was a girl. She was holding a large black and red hilted scythe with a bright silver blade. Her silver hair settled down against her back and her purple eyes looked at him warily before changing into emotionless. Despite of the warm weather, she was wearing a scarf that ended around mid-thigh, a jacket with rolled up sleeves, a long inside shirt, tights and flats.

"_Name/Alias: _Death God of the Snow"

Tsuna shot downwards, aiming an attack near her stomach, only for his path to be stopped by a swing of her scythe. He dodged the blade and landed neatly on the ground. Just as he did so, the ground moved and the area of the battlefield started to rise.

"What is this?" Tsuna yelled. He received no reply. The girl had sprung forward again, swinging her scythe easily and slicing downwards, leaving a large hole in the ground. The floor continued to rise higher and higher before finally stopping in a large space above the maze. It was dark and because the two of them had been raised so high, the oxygen levels started to thin.

"An illusion?" Tsuna thought, ducking to the side and flying back into the air. He looked down and he saw the area as it actually was. On top of the huge maze that they had found their way through, was a giant chessboard. When they were on the ground, the sky looked as blue as it always did. "Can they use flames?" he continued to think until his opponent's scythe grazed him along the stomach.

"Stay focused. You can't afford to have your mind straying right now," the girl said, holding her scythe with one hand and swinging it backwards.

Fist met blade as the fight continued to unfold. After a long time of fighting, the girl still didn't show any signs of revealing her flames. By now, Tsuna knew for sure that she didn't know of it. Despite this, she was strong. Tsuna had the advantage of battle in the air but if he flew any higher, he would start feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

Ducking left and right, occasionally swooping in to land a hit on his opponent, Tsuna fought on. His body felt sore and his arms, torso and face were scratched and bleeding. The girl was in a worse condition. She was breathing harshly and from repetitively being thrown back onto the ground, her face showed signs of pain when she moved and she too, was bleeding.

Retreating back into the air, Tsuna saw his opponent momentarily close her eyes. Not long after, her eyes shot open again, startled. Her breathing slowed as her face still held the tone of surprise. Suddenly, something shimmered. A small black flame flickered on her forehead, contrasting with her silver hair, before disappearing.

Tsuna felt shocked. He was sure the girl didn't know how to use flames… but what was that?

Fleetingly, his eyes searched for the little Arcobaleno. The hitman was nowhere to be found.

**o.o.o.o**

Hibari walked slowly around the maze, his anticipation for a great battle, high. Unlike most people, Hibari didn't walk into any dead-ends. Instead, he just went his way, waiting to attack until he finally reached the end of his path. He walked out into the large, open space and looked around. There was a large stream along the side of the area. The water was fast flowing and he knew that it wouldn't be very smart to fall inside. He detected the aura of another person and he spun around, his tonfas ready to attack. A boy with black hair, tied into a short ponytail, and dark blue eyes, came into view.

He was wearing a long, sleeveless, zipped up turtleneck jacket separated with a belt, arm warmers, three quarter pants and flats.

Immediately, Hibari moved forward but the boy reacted quickly. A pair of daggers clashed with his metal tonfas. As the two pairs of weaponry battled for the upper hand, Hibari smirked at the face in front of him. "Are you strong?" Hibari asked, jumping back as one of the daggers slashed at his stomach.

The boy didn't reply. Instead, Hibari was given another slice of the daggers, this time they aimed for his arm.

"Wao, you're fast," Hibari smirked as purple flames coated his tonfas and surprise flickered in his opponent's eyes. "Too bad I'm faster. I'll bite you to death."

Hibari's mind wandered off from his battle slightly, remembering the name of the boy in the description.

"_Name/Alias:_ Hell's Ice Devil"

The "Ice Devil" moved his daggers as fast as Hibari moved his tonfas. However, the power within his tonfas had been multiplied tenfold from his flames and the boy could only defend.

Slowly, the two of them fought, moving closer and closer to the fast flowing stream. There was some clashing heard above them, outside of the confines of the maze. Perhaps it was another fight?

The boy managed to cut Hibari's left cheek but in return, he was sent flying along the river from a hit in the gut. Hibari smirked, "do you wish to keep fighting?"

The boy merely glared as he stood back up and sprinted forward, his two blades being blocked by purple flame coated tonfas. Hibari wondered whether his opponent was fighting at full strength. After all, he was already using his Cloud flames.

The two continued to attack, not one of them wishing to move into defence. They carefully avoided the stream and continued to strike again and again, causing small sparks to appear with the strength and speed of the two pairs of weapons clashing.

Finally, at some point, the boy was near the very edge of the stream. Hibari continued to drive him backwards slowly, but he was getting there. Victory was just within his reach. He didn't care that he was getting cut slightly. The only thing in his mind was to get the blue-eyed boy to fall.

The boy's eyes changed momentarily. Hibari wasn't sure what the change was. Colour? Emotion? Either way, he continued to strike again and again, determined to get the boy into the stream. When his opponent's eyes suddenly reverted back to its original state, it was too late. His foot had slipped on the edge and he fell down.

Hibari, surprised for once, watched as the boy didn't fall into the water. Instead, he had jumped up high into the air and landed neatly behind him. The boy's eyes were wide with astonishment but Hibari disregarded it and continued to rain down attacks non-stop. His daggers continued to clash loudly with Hibari's tonfas yet no one was getting the upper hand this time.

Looking carefully, Hibari realised that the boy's daggers had a white sheen over the light blue blade. It certainly wasn't there before. Hibari thought for a moment before dismissing the whole idea._ 'Who cares? Just as long as he's strong, I'll fight.'_

* * *

**Next chapter – Target 6: Battle Part 2 – Yamamoto and Gokudera**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.


	6. Target 6: Battle Part 2

**Next chapter~**

**Frost190: The only male in the main Artiglio Family is Kirifuda Hibiki, also known as "Hell's Ice Devil".**

**Have fun!**

* * *

Target 6: Battle Part 2 – Yamamoto and Gokudera

Yamamoto grew bored as he stayed to the left of his maze, continually walking into dead-ends and whatnot. To ease some of his boredom, he ended up interchanging between the forms of the Shigure Kintoki. He watched with mild amusement of how the strange bamboo stick used for kendo morphed into his shiny sword with just a single swing. His mind drifted off to his imagination of his opponent. Would it be someone like Squalo with a funny call like, "VOOOIIII!" or maybe someone like Genkishi who was kinda… odd?

He walked straight into a large area, only dimly aware of the change in his surroundings. He was wrenched back to reality when a rope shot out and nearly hit him. It was lucky that he was fast enough to move away quickly.

By then, he took in the orientation of his battlefield. It was a small Japanese style pavilion with little rock gardens and plants. The building, which stood small, but mighty, was intricate and elegant. The pillars that surrounded the building completed the scene, making the area look as if it was a snippet out of history.

Yamamoto focused on his opponent. The wielder of the whip wasn't someone like Squalo, or Genkishi or Dino, for that matter. There stood a girl with light brown hair. She wore a half jacket, a collared shirt, a skirt and long boots and her hazel eyes looked at him and then his weapon.

"_Name/Alias:_ Healing Devil"

"Ah! Healing Devil, isn't it!" Yamamoto exclaimed suddenly, watching in confusion as the girl suddenly scowled.

"What do you mean, Healing _Devil_, huh? Why the hell would devils heal things?" She replied, frowning.

"Then what was it?"

"Healing _Angel_," she sighed.

"Oh… that's right."

"_Name/Alias:_ Healing Devil... Cross that out... Healing Angel"

Only then, did he realise that his Shigure Kintoki was in bamboo stick form. Grinning awkwardly, he swung his weapon once and it transformed into his katana. He steadied himself into one of the Shigure Souen stances and lunged forward, ready to attack.

The girl jumped back, landing on the rock garden. Yamamoto sprang forward again, moving his sword down sharply. Strands of the girl's brown hair fluttered to the ground as she landed on a small rock platform, preparing to attack.

She drew her arm backwards and swung her whip, causing the rope to lash out unpredictably. Yamamoto immediately knew where she was aiming for so he darted to the right and shot forward, whilst keeping the hand he held the sword in, out of her range.

The girl jumped off the platform and moved to the left, confident that her whip would cover the range between them. Catching her off guard, he ran towards her instead of away. Her attacking power was counted in the ability to stretch her whip. Taking the space between them away would leave her with less time to regain her stance and hit him with the very end of the rope.

Yamamoto continued the run forward, while the girl wound up the rope rapidly, obviously knowing what he was aiming for, but because she couldn't get back into her fighting stance fast enough, she switched to defence and jumped back, recreating the distance.

It was then that Yamamoto decided to use his flames. His Shigure Kintoki glowed a light blue as he ran forward again, ignoring the look of surprise on his opponent's face. His academics may not have been the best but he immediately knew that, judging from the girl's reaction, the Artiglio Family didn't know how to use flames.

Like always, he struck the girl with the back of his sword, causing her to fly backwards into one of the pillars and slump down, seemingly unconscious. The shock of the sudden improvement of strength and the fact that her one probable weakness had been discovered ended the match quickly. Or so he thought.

Yamamoto walked along the small rock path, towards the direction of the girl. He was still wary, as he did use the blunt end of the sword and it wouldn't completely knock her unconscious because she was a decent fighter. Her finger twitched and her right hand gripped her whip tightly, the whole weapon glowing a bright yellow. The girl's face suddenly turned upwards, her hazel eyes looking at him sharply as she swung the yellow-coated silver whip towards him, jumping back in the process and regaining her fighting position.

**o.o.o.o**

Gokudera had carefully calculated the possible amount of times he was supposed to turn left and the possible amount of times he was supposed to turn right. Thinking of a map of the maze in his head, he walked along the path he thought was right. He pulled out a cigarette and watched the smoke disappear into the air. "I wonder if Jyuudaime is alright," he thought.

The brick maze around him suddenly turned transparent. The sound of his footsteps suddenly became apparent and, was that the sound of rushing water? Unconsciously, Gokudera thought up for ten different possibilities of what had happened, some completely out of the universe ideas and a couple more which were realistic. Using the process of elimination, he deduced that he had either been abducted by U.M.A's or that he had walked into a glass maze. The latter seemed more correct.

The sound of rushing water became louder, and clearer until he finally looked down, his eyes widening in disbelief. There was a fast-flowing stream, running right underneath the glass floor! If the floor were to break, he would suffer the slow, painful process of drowning. He didn't think much of that.

There were multiple loud cracks that rang out and suddenly, three sharp, thin objects whizzed their way in between his face and his hand, one causing him to drop his cigarette onto the ground and another to graze him on the cheek. It then stuck into the glass behind him, hanging there precariously. Gokudera turned his head to the source of the attack and saw a girl holding her nose in distaste. Her free hand was outstretched, meaning that she definitely was the one who had made him drop his smoke. He glanced at the object the girl threw. Needles? Was she the one who attacked Chrome? The girl wore a long buttoned jacket, pants and short boots and her waist-length, dark blue hair moved slightly in the wind. Strangely, her black eyes glowed with a slight red tinge.

"_Name/Alias:_ Fallen Angel"

"Haven't you seen all those anti-smoking advertisements on television? Besides, cigarette smoke smells horrible," she yelled, her voice muffled by the walls of glass between them.

Gokudera frowned and called back, "It's my body and I can do whatever I want with it."

The girl sighed, "I'll make it so you'll never smoke again, then."

"I'd like to see you try." Gokudera pulled out his dynamite in his usual fashion and carefully calculated a plan. They were in a glass maze. Objects like needles wouldn't break through the glass no matter how much human strength was used. However, even if the needle did manage to break through, the whole wall would have shattered. There was obviously another variable involved.

His dynamite would definitely shatter the glass but if he threw them, he'd only harm himself. The plan suddenly became loud and clear. Gokudera ran through the maze, hearing the needles piercing easily through the glass. What was the object she was using?

_Ring ring. Ring ring._

"_What?"_ _an annoyed voice spoke from the other end._

"_Gokudera-kun!"_

"_A-Ah! Jyuudaime! How are you?"_ _The voice brightened up considerably and Tsuna smiled strangely._

"_Chrome got attacked. This time it was poison needles."_

Poison needles… that's it!

Gokudera stopped running and lit his dynamite. He'll blast through. The sound of him running on the glass floor meant it was fairly thick and glass shards would definitely not get through. He dropped a bomb in one of the dead ends of the maze and immediately ran away from it.

BOOM!

When the girl appeared behind the hole he had made in the maze, his Flame Arrow was ready and charged. The dynamite was light green and he was about to release his strongest attack. The arrow was shot and the girl threw needles at it, knowing that she wouldn't be able to avoid the attack. She dulled the strength of the attack considerably with the poison eating away at the weapon but Gokudera had taken it all into account. The least he could do was knock her unconscious.

Within the time of the Flame Thunder being shot and the time it took to reach it's target, the girl stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide with surprise, before she snapped back to reality and took the hit. Gokudera swore he saw a flicker of red flames before she was engulfed with smoke.

* * *

**Next chapter – Target 7: Battle Part 3 – Ryohei and Artiglio's Flames**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.


	7. Target 7: Battle Part 3

**Chapter 7~**

**Nothing much to say…**

**Have fun reading~**

* * *

Target 7: Battle Part 3 – Ryohei and Artiglio's Flames

"EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled as he ran around the maze with endless energy. He had no idea as to which way he was going. He could also have been moving backwards for all he cared. Continuing to run, he broke out of the maze and into a large, rocky area. Looking around in wonder as to why such a field was inside a maze, a mass of spiky purple hair showed itself.

The purple-haired, green-eyed girl grinned cheekily. In her hands, was a small gun. Ryohei knew immediately that he had a disadvantage. He was a close-combat fighter and the girl could attack from afar. He thought about it for a second then came to a resolve.

"I'll get rid of the gun then!" Ryohei ducked to the side as if he was boxing and launched an upper cut towards the gun. The girl jumped back, regaining distance between the two of them.

"In boxing, it's common to introduce ourselves before a fight. I'm Sasagawa Ryohei. Extremely nice to meet you."

"Mary-Anne Schioppo." Ryohei ran forward again, aiming for the gun, only for Mary to jump back again, regaining distance once more. She was wearing a hooded zip-up jacket, a t-shirt, knee-high shorts and sneakers.

"_Name/Alias:_ Gun Trickster"

"A foreigner? You from Italy, or something?" he asked, picturing a certain silver haired octopus head.

Mary nodded, closing one of her eyes and calculating the distance between the two of them before getting her gun ready.

"That's extremely awesome," Ryohei muttered as the girl moved to stand on one of the many sharp rocks.

"You think so?" the girl grinned, aiming her gun at Ryohei's feet and preparing to shoot.

Ryohei didn't know a thing about guns but he did know that when packed with real bullets, they'd hurt quite a bit. He sprinted forward, darting left and right with his hands balled in fists, ready to punch at first opportunity.

The girl redirected her aim to his face and pulled the trigger. It was hard to focus on one spot when her opponent was dancing around like crazy and Ryohei's common sense told him to move around. A lot.

The result was that the fast moving bullet merely grazed the side of his face to the barest minimum before continuing to travel, embedding itself into a rock platform and blasting it to pieces. Small rock pieces showered down as Ryohei prepared himself for a great punch.

"EXTREME MAXIMUM CANNON!"

The girl shot another bullet at point blank that time. An ordinary bullet was no match against Ryohei's sun flames and the girl flew back, her spine smashing against a rock, creating a large crack in the pillar. The rock slowly crumbled away as the girl fell to the ground.

A dull fear of accidentally killing someone erupted as he ran over to investigate the damage he had caused. The girl was breathing normally and didn't seem to be in any pain. She merely stood up, brushed herself off, and started laughing.

"AWESOME! WHAT WAS THAT?" she yelled, her green eyes alight with interest.

Ryohei was now confused. She was just thrown against a rock and she seemed completely unscathed. He then noticed that she winced slightly as she stood. Maybe she wasn't completely unscathed after all.

She dropped down to the ground and closed her eyes. The bullet casings of her gun fell out as she kneeled, her face contorted in pain. Suddenly, as if an unknown force was pushing her up, she stood again, her face as grinning happily. Of course, Ryohei didn't know what to think now. He'd met his fair share of strange people. Hell, he was one of them himself but this girl exceeded the charts of "strange"…

Quietly, she grinned and held up her gun. The piece of metal was glowing a strange green and Ryohei's alert system went off like a siren. As he ran towards the nearest tall pillar of rock, the faint "click" of the trigger being pulled was heard. Whistling through the air was a green, lightning flame bullet.

**o.o.o.o**

All the members of the Vongola Famiglia who were present in the battle stared at their opponents. Each one of them was almost completely certain that the Artiglio Family didn't know how to use flames. Yet, at almost exactly the same time, each one of them battled. Black, white, yellow, red and green flames flickered brightly in their respective areas. Each member of the Vongola knew that their opponents were going to be a hell of a lot stronger than when they first started fighting.

But of course, they still had the advantage of box weapons and animals and also, the experience when it came to using flames. Still, the rest of the fight was going to be harsh.

Gloves clashed with scythes, tonfas battled with daggers, swords parried whips, dynamites exploded with needles and fists fought with guns. All their opponents were strong but they were stronger.

Tsuna breathed harshly from up in the sky, his cape moving slightly from the small wind. The silver haired girl standing on the ground was no better. Her silver bladed scythe, coated with a thin sheet of black had a cutting power of tenfold, compared to before. The chessboard had lowered back to the ground and the sides of the maze could be seen.

Tsuna dashed downwards, his orange flames leaving a trail of light before disappearing. The girl jumped upwards, her black flames vanishing like a ghost. The two clashed and an explosion was created, throwing both of them to the ground, on opposite sides of the battlefield.

Tsuna saw a flash of pink hair as he felt arms wrap around his shoulders and a hand clamp his mouth shut. He felt weak from the battle and didn't have enough power to summon strong enough flames to get rid of his captors. He hardly had any strength to protest. Nevertheless, he attempted to struggle.

"JYUUDAIME!" someone called. It sounded suspiciously like Gokudera, "WHERE ARE YOU?" He was safe, thank goodness. Tsuna heard his name being called by another voice. Was it Yamamoto? So he survived as well. That's two… His last name was yelled loudly once. Onii-san…? None of them sounded hurt… he was sure that Hibari was safe and sound so that meant they had won?

"YUKIKO!" a higher pitched voice rung out. Was that the real name of "The Death God of the Snow"? The sound of the explosion must have stopped their fighting. Tsuna's mind went wandering over the clouds. When he got back to Namimori, he was sure that Hibari wouldn't be very happy… someone was called once more. Tsuna couldn't discern it. The impending darkness surrounded him as though he was falling into a hole. The smell of gas and random yells of shock flooded his senses before he blacked out.

* * *

******Next chapter – Target 8: Escape**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.


	8. Target 8: Escape

**19: Daemon Spade stole my cards! You guys will understand this after a couple more chapters…**

**37: Chapter 8 already~**

**SakuraHaruno9: Yes, Tsuna's fight was a bit short! D: I realised that as I was typing it. Thing was, I typed all these chapters up randomly along spread out days and just… there were times when I wanted to type more. Well, this part isn't the huge, big boss battle yet so when that comes… who knows how long it'll be? xD**

**Hibirdie: Glad you like the OC's. Unfortunately, there won't be any pairings in this story, so sorry about that. D: That aside, ooh… the flames part. We're sticking to the flames of the Sky because the flames of the Earth are Shimon's area and if we invented more, it'd become a bit confusing. However, for the stranger coloured and the missing flames… well… wait and find out. xDD**

**Also, thankyou for pointing out that error. (:**

**There's an important author's note at the end. Please read it. :D**

* * *

Target 8: Escape

It was all dark and silent. There was a quiet dripping sound somewhere in the distance. Was it raining? What time was it? How far had they travelled in that small amount of time? Where were they? Were they even in the same country? Tsuna and Yukiko didn't know a thing when they woke up groggily. Both were in pain from the previous days' fight (or was it more?) and both were completely depleted in strength.

Tsuna opened his eyes to a dark room. Beside him, breathing quietly was the Death God of the Snow, Yukiko.

"Fitting name… Snow child…" he thought as the girl moved slightly. Her purple eyes opened and she saw him sitting there. Surprisingly, her face showed no signs of anger or disgust. However, he didn't feel any resent so she shouldn't have a reason to either.

"What happened?" she asked, sitting up and looking at him.

Tsuna shook his head. He remembered seeing pink hair. Cervello? Suddenly, everything fell into place. The notes, the requests, the battle were all caused by one source.

Cervello.

**o.o.o.o**

The remaining members of the Artiglio and Vongola Families panicked as the smoke bomb engulfed everything in gas.

"JYUUDAIME!" Gokudera yelled again, coughing when the gas from the smoke bomb spread its tendrils greedily.

Yamamoto fought the substance in the air deftly, trying to see through the thick cover and Ryohei ran in circles, trying to move into a clear patch, accidentally running into one of the members of the Artiglio Family, who yelled in protest.

A small helicopter hovered over their heads as the Sun Arcobaleno stuck his head out, holding a megaphone.

"Everybody, get out of the maze, now!" he called, "Go towards the stream!"

Suddenly, there was a large tremor and the walls of the maze started to collapse. The remaining members of the Artiglio and Vongola Families simply ran. Hibari, Gokudera and their opponents knew where the stream was but Hibari and the "Hell's Ice Devil" weren't present, so the others simply followed Gokudera and his opponent. Loud explosions rang out as Gokudera blew up bits of debris and the "Fallen Angel" caused explosions from her needles.

The two people who were blowing up everything in their path failed to move fast enough as one brick wall toppled onto the group. The six of them either jumped forwards or backwards, splitting the group into two.

"Octopus head! We'll meet you there!" Ryohei yelled while Yamamoto nodded his head. The two of them, the "Healing Angel" and the "Fallen Angel" moved to the side, out of the path of another toppling wall.

"You'd better be there, turf-head!" Gokudera bellowed in response. He was with the "Gun Trickster". At that, the two groups separated and went their own ways.

Gokudera led the purple haired girl towards the direction of the stream. The two of them stayed close, blasting whatever was within a metre radius of them into smithereens. The purple haired gunwoman narrowly missed a falling brick as they continued to charge on, not looking back.

The blue-haired needle user led the other group. Ryohei was running at extreme speeds and blasting everything in his path, but continually stopped to stay together with the group. The two Artiglio members occasionally talked and laughed to each other, despite the circumstances they were in. Yamamoto caught a, "Where's Hibiki-chan?" and dimly wondered what they were talking about.

The stream was just in view as the two groups stumbled towards their destination. Each and every one of their limbs felt sore and overused but they kept fighting on, knowing that pain was better than death. The walls continued to tumble down relentlessly, allowing the two groups to be able see each other, but not letting them get any closer.

The very last of the walls in the maze came crashing down before the six people took deep breaths and jumped, feet first, into the icy cold water. The stream, which was fast flowing before, was now still with the amount of debris which had piled over the pathway. Everything started to settle down and the dust around them disappeared into a thin mist. There were no signs of the enemy at all and, immediately after the commotion had completely died down, all of them jumped out of the stream, with one of the girls complaining about wet clothing and muttering something about, "Kiyoshi's going to kill us".

The six people were trembling in their cold, wet states when Reborn decided to land his miniature helicopter.

"No one died, right?" he asked, receiving strange looks from everyone around him.

Gokudera nodded before looking at the damage his dynamite had suffered within the lining of his jacket.

"Where's Hibari?" Yamamoto asked. One of the girls mouthed, "who's Hibari?" while the other two shrugged.

"Ah… I almost forgot. They made their own way out of the maze and are still fighting," Reborn replied.

Everyone fell silent. There were indeed the sounds of weapons clashing somewhere close by.

**o.o.o.o**

The clanging sounds grew louder as the group moved towards the relocated battlefield. Hibari was attacking while his opponent was defending, occasionally trying to land a blow with his daggers.

"Hibari. The fight's over," Reborn said. Hibari stopped after a few more swings of his tonfas. Once again, one of the girls mouthed, "oh, that's Hibari…"

"What do you mean _over_?" Hibari asked icily, glaring at the rest of the group, whom were all cowering behind Gokudera (who was scared stiff himself).

"I promise you an even better fight in days to come. Would you be able to wait?"

Hibari thought about this offer for a while before lowering his tonfas and walking away. The "Hell's Ice Devil" simply looked at the talking baby before walking over to the remaining members of his family and poking their wet clothing.

"What's happening?" Yamamoto asked, shivering slightly. The members of the Artiglio Family nodded their heads once. It was apparent that they knew of the Arcobaleno, as they showed no signs of surprise at the talking baby; either that or they hid it well.

"I had to wait around to get information," Reborn replied, watching Leon turn into a large blow dryer.

"What do you mean?" Gokudera yelled over the whirring of the dryer.

"Cervello wanted something to do with Tsuna and the Artiglio Boss."

"I still don't quite get it," Gokudera said again. Everyone was now dry and glad that they had escaped with their lives intact.

"Cervello sent us a request to defeat the Artiglio Family. Then, they attacked Tsuna and Chrome before forging a letter. All of this was set up to capture Tsuna and the Death God of the Snow. I assume the same happened to you," Reborn explained as the boy of the Artiglio Family nodded.

"Let's find somewhere more appropriate to talk," he said, re-tying his ponytail before the other members stood up. Reborn nodded in agreement.

Everyone stood up and looked at the remnants of the maze. Knowing what the Cervello could do, the Vongola Family thought nothing of the mess.

"Gokudera?" Yamamoto asked, glancing at the silver-haired male who had suddenly fell to his knees.

The poison needle wielder suddenly clasped her hands over her mouth, "Oops… I forgot that I hit him with one of my needles…"

**o.o.o.o**

The eight of them were cramped up in Tsuna's tiny bedroom and Reborn knew that Hibari was lounging around somewhere within earshot. Yamamoto and Ryohei had the amusement of watching the Artiglio members' faces morph into surprise as they saw the state of the room that the 10th Vongola Boss spent his nights in.

The Artiglio Family had trust in the Sun Arcobaleno but were still wary of the Vongola and vice versa. Reborn had momentarily settled the confusion between the two Families before getting down to business. However, before the talking started, Gokudera needed to be healed. He was lying quietly on the bed while the rest of the people watched the two girls of the Artiglio Family dig out an assortment of little bottles.

"Is it this one?" The dark haired one whispered.

"Nope, that one, I think," the brown-haired one replied, continuing to fish out more bottles from her jacket.

"No no, I think it's _that_ one."

Even though he was very near drifting into unconsciousness, a tic started growing on Gokudera's forehead.

"WOULD YOU FIND THE RIGHT ONE ALREADY? THIS IS FUCKING PAINFUL, YOU KNOW!"

All of them stopped and stared. The two girls looked at each other before resuming what they were doing, the dark haired one muttering, "ungrateful bastard."

Tsuna's small desk was completely covered with miniature bottles containing poison antidotes. Finally, the right one was found and was injected into Gokudera's system with a needle.

"I am Reborn, the 9th Vongola Boss' most trusted hitman," Reborn said after the whole commotion of the poison. It was also after he had been told that it was common courtesy to reveal names before asking for someone else's. "The one outside is Hibari Kyoya," he continued.

"Gokudera Hayato, Jyuudaime's Right Hand Man," Gokudera said grudgingly, glaring at the two girls, who looked back sheepishly.

"Yamamoto Takeshi. Nice to meet you!" Yamamoto flashed his famous smile, almost making everyone else shield their eyes from the brightness.

"Sasagawa Ryohei! EXTREMELY nice to meet you!" Ryohei nearly yelled. Everyone covered their ears in protest.

The boy of the Artiglio Family nodded, "I am Kirifuda Hibiki, right hand man of our boss, Sujimichi Yukiko. You would know me as the "Hell's Ice Devil".

"Kusuri Hana. Also known as "Healing _Angel"_." The brown haired girl stressed, looking at Yamamoto pointedly, who scratched the back of his neck.

"Hatsuon Mei, "Fallen Angel"," the blue haired girl spoke, smiling and putting the little bottles of antidotes back into her jacket.

"MARY-ANNE SCHIOPPO! GUN TRICKSTER! NICE TO MEET YOU!" the purple-haired girl yelled, standing up in pride.

"I EXTREMELY LIKE YOUR ENERGY!" Ryohei yelled back, standing up as well. The two of the traded a firm handshake before sitting back down again and acting as though the scene never happened.

"So the Cervello sent you a challenge notice as well?" Gokudera asked while everyone got over the moment of shock.

Hibiki nodded, "We are usually stationed in Italy and we didn't know that we were known here. The notice baffled us a bit."

"You are a new Family, correct?" Reborn asked. The four members nodded.

"When and why did you create the Family, then?" he asked.

Hibiki, Hana, Mei and Mary-Anne looked at each other. They turned to face the Vongola simultaneously and took a deep breath.

"Well…"

**o.o.o.o**

"I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi," Tsuna said, holding out a bruised and scratched hand.

The silver haired girl across him looked at his hand wearily before holding out hers and grasping it in a weak handshake.

"Your name's quite a mouthful but I'm not one to talk," she smiled grimly, "Sujimichi Yukiko."

Although they had met as enemies before, they were now sure that they were on the same side after the whole kidnapping process.

"Your Family is new, isn't it?" Tsuna asked curiously and Yukiko nodded.

"We were only established around a year ago."

"Why did you make a Family?" he asked. What he actually wanted to say was something along the lines of, "why the hell did you willingly volunteer to become a mafia boss?"

Yukiko closed her eyes momentarily, "it's quite a long story but we've got a bit of time."

Tsuna nodded as Yukiko opened her eyes, the purple hue seemed dull under the dim light of the disappearing sunset.

"Well…"

* * *

**Editor's note: As usual, the dear author has more mistakes than ever in this chapter….siighh~ **

**37: This story will now go on hiatus for around six weeks. However, it will shift over to our **_**side story **_**(out next Tuesday)****, which includes the history of the Artiglio Family up to present time. It's your choice to read it but if you choose not to, you might be horribly confused when the next chapter of this story is posted. That aside, I would advise to read the side story to get to know our characters a bit better. :D**

**Now, that aside…**

**Next chapter – Target 9: Explanation, out on the 21****st**** of June. (If I calculated correctly xD)**

**Review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

* * *

**Support Group (Characters that will be introduced in the _side story_)**

_Kusuri Kai – _The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and is the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi (Mentioned in this chapter)_ – The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he also has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion – _The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo – _The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	9. Target 9: Explanation

**A big welcome back to this story! It's been six weeks. :D**

**We hoped that you did actually read the side story and managed to know our OC's a bit better.**

**There's an important author's note at the end. Please read it. (No, it's not going on hiatus again! xD)**

**This chapter will be the end of the **_**Artiglio Famiglia Arc**_**, and the start of a new arc. Along with this, we're bringing in the **_**Artiglio Famiglia Support Family**_**. Information on them have been added to the OC list in the bottom-of-the-chapter author's note.**

**So, without further ado, I present Target 9. :D**

* * *

Target 9: Explanation

_From the side story:_

_Yukiko shrugged, cringing from the movement, "Say, we've got a bit of time. You know how to produce those flames, right?"_

"_Eh? Yeah, what of it?" Tsuna asked._

"_Do you think you can teach me?"_

**o.o.o.o**

"You picture your resolve and then transform the energy exuded from the thought into a flame, which you then propel into your ri-"

"You go kaboom! And your brain goes pow! And then it's right ther-"

"GUTS! PURE GUTS! USE YOUR GUTS TO THE EXTRE-"

Reborn couldn't help but think it was déjà vu. Despite this, it was amusing to watch the shocked expressions of the Artiglio Family, who were helplessly trying to understand the jumbled up words that Gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei were trying to convey.

"Who the hell uses _guts_ to make a flame? Huh?" Gokudera hissed.

Reborn, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, Chrome, who had completely gotten over her sickness, and the Artiglio Family, Hibiki, Hana, Mei and Mary, stood in a clearing fairly close to where their maze fight had taken place. The Family had asked the Vongola members to teach them how to use flames. Both the Vongola and Artiglio Families understood that there was going to be a major battle against the Cervello if they intended to get their bosses back. Reborn had asked Dino and the Cavallone Family to investigate the Cervello and find out what they were up to. So far, no certain information had been discovered.

Reborn sighed, not bothering to break up the fight between the two white haired members of the Vongola Family. Yamamoto laughed and attempted to calm them down instead. Chrome continued to stand quietly in her little area, clutching her trident protectively. Turning to the shell-shocked Artiglio Family, the baby looked up at them.

"Basically, think of your resolve, no matter what that is, and solidify it into a flame."

There was a faint white flicker here, and light yellow flash there, a crackle of green and a glint of red.

Reborn closed his eyes, "Keep practising that. There's not only one way to produce a flame."

The Artiglio Family nodded before focusing back on their rings as another couple of wispy flames shimmered.

"Reborn-san?" Gokudera whispered, edging towards the Sun Arcobaleno.

"What is it, Gokudera?"

"Do you think they know about box weapons and animals?" he turned towards the group of four, their flames visibly stronger than their first attempts.

The baby shook his head, "I'm guessing the best they can do now is strengthen their weapons with their flames." Gokudera nodded in reply.

The boy in the Artiglio Family, Hibiki, had a strange white flame, which flickered slowly before disappearing. After many tries, the brown haired girl, Hana, became the first to manage to get her flame going for an extended period of time. She grinned before distinguishing the flame and lighting it up again. The rest smiled in appreciation before Hibiki, too, succeeded in keeping his flame alive. The mesmerising yellow and white flames continued to light up before a red flame followed closely by a green one, joined the rest. The group smiled at each other, looking at the array of different colours.

"Kirifuda-san?" Yamamoto asked, looking at the boy with the white flame, whose dark blue eyes focused on the baseball player's face quizzically, "Why do you have two rings?"

Hibiki looked at his hand. Indeed there were two rings. He had grown so accustomed to them that he forgot it was there… was it because he had another flame?

Understanding the concept in creating a flame, the second ring lit up faintly, its colour a dark blue. Side by side, the white and blue flames continued to stay alight before dying down.

"Hey Little Guy?" Yamamoto looked at Reborn.

"Hm?"

"Why did Kirifuda-san have a white flame?"

The baby thought for a second, "It's probably the same as why Byakuran's flame colour was different. The colours tend to change depending on the person."

"So Hatsuon Mei has the storm flame, Kusuri Hana has the sun, Mary-Anne Schioppo has the lightning, and Kirifuda Hibiki has the rain and the mist?" Gokudera asked in a tone that seemed more like stating then questioning.

"That leaves their boss, Sujimichi Yukiko, with the cloud and the sky flame," Reborn finished off. The Artiglio members looked at the Vongola in question, only understanding a fragment of what they were saying. Reborn decided that it was his duty to explain. He sighed before asking everyone to sit down in front of him. He took out a stick and started drawing on the ground.

"There are seven attributes which make up the Flames of the Sky. Firstly, the Storm Flame," Reborn started off, drawing the small cyclone symbol and nodding at Gokudera and Hatsuon Mei, "continuously at the heart of attack, the furious Storm that never rests.

"Next, the Sun Flame." Reborn drew a small sun and looked at Ryohei and Kusuri Hana. "Destroying the misfortune that attacks the Family with their own body, they become the Sun that shines brightly upon an area.

"Then, there's the Lightning Flame," a small lightning bolt was drawn and Mary-Anne Schioppo looked at it intently, "To draw damage to oneself and away from the rest of the Family, serving as a lightning rod.

"The Rain Flame," Reborn etched a water droplet as Yamamoto glanced at Kirifuda Hibiki, "To become a blessed shower that settles conflict and washes everything away.

"The Mist attribute," Chrome looked up to see the Sun Arcobaleno, "creating something from nothing, and nothing from something; thus bewildering the enemy to render the Family's true form intangible with visions of deceit."

"The Cloud Flame," Reborn drew a small cloud, "to be the aloof, drifting Cloud that protects the Family from an independent standpoint, and whom nothing can ever bind.

"And lastly, the Sky attribute." Reborn put down his stick, unable to draw anymore. "Storm, Sun, Lightning, Rain, Mist and Cloud, the Sky is the one who influences, understands and accepts them all," he finished off.

"Reborn!" a new voice called out from someplace outside of the clearing. The Arcobaleno's eyes narrowed slightly, "We're over here, Dino."

A few seconds later, Dino came walking into the clearing with a few of his Family members trailing behind. After one glance at the Artiglio Family accompanied with a short wave and introduction, he got down to business.

"We've got a little bit of information on the Cervello. You won't like it," he whispered to the baby.

"Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, Chrome," Reborn addressed the Vongola, "get them through their training. I'm needed elsewhere." At that, Reborn, ignoring all sounds of confusion, hopped onto Dino's shoulder as they walked off rapidly.

None of the members liked the sound of that.

* * *

**-Pasted from the side story-**

**It has been decided that THERE WILL BE pairings in this story. (I never realised how many people like pairings…). The thing is, we're not sure which character should go with whom. Also, although there will be pairings, they will only show up as hints. (I can't write romance at all. xD)**

**So, to help us with this decision, please go onto our profile page and vote, preferably one for each one of our OC's, making a total of five votes (:**

**37: Please vote and help with our decision!**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	10. Target 10: Flame Training

**Aw… not as much feedback as I wanted. The number of hits was good, though. Keep up with the voting! :D**

**Now, Target 10.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Target 10: Flame Training

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

The irritating sound of water dripping in some distant place contributed well to the clichéd way the Cervello Family had decided to fling Tsuna and Yukiko into a cold, dark, grimy cell.

The two captives felt weak and exhausted despite the fact that all they had been doing was lying helplessly inside their cell. It was as though some outside source was sucking all their energy out. Tsuna wondered dimly whether the Cervello kept them in some room that worked similarly to Lal Mirch's box weapon.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

Tsuna lifted his hand slowly as his silver-haired cellmate glanced at him tiredly. Curling his hand into a fist, he commanded his Sky flames to show themselves. For a second, the flames appeared, flickering weakly, before they shifted as though a wind was blowing from behind them. The two of them watched intently as the orange flames stretched and disappeared, as though there was a vacuum sucking them from outside the cell.

Sighing slowly, Tsuna leaned backwards against the wall and looked at Yukiko. "I could try to teach you but firstly, I'm not a very good teacher. People find it hard to teach me, let alone me trying to teach another, and secondly, we're in an area where flames are sucked out. We would hardly be able to move, let alone having me, being called Dame-Tsuna for almost all my life, teach someone," Tsuna answered as Yukiko simply looked at him.

"Your flame appeared for around a second. I think that should be enough to see if I get the basics of producing a flame. After that's over, I guess there's only developing on the idea and hoping it works," Yukiko replied.

"Yeah." Tsuna nodded, stretching his arms slightly. The feeling of being inside a flame-collecting cell brought up too many memories from the future. Pictures of Ghost, Byakuran, the Millefiore and the Vongola's future Family circled around his mind before hearing a dull thump of Yukiko passing out as he too fell painfully against the ground, unconscious.

**o.o.o.o**

"So…" Mei said uncomfortably. Ever since Reborn had left, the eight people left in the clearing had stayed in a completely stony silence.

"What do we do…?" Hana completed, shuffling awkwardly.

"You know how to create flames. All there is left is application," Gokudera explained as Ryohei nodded in agreement.

"We should split into groups," Hibiki suggested quietly.

"Yeah…" Mary looked at a random tree close by.

"Should we split by attribute?" Yamamoto asked, maintaining his happy smile despite the awkward atmosphere.

"But not everyone here has the same attributes," Chrome pointed out, looking away when all eyes shifted to her first words of the day.

"Well, seeing as Kirifuda," Gokudera glanced at Hibiki, "should learn a bit about illusions, he should pair with you."

"Ah… I guess…" Chrome tightened her hold on her trident.

"Shouldn't the rest of us split up with whom we fought?" Yamamoto suggested, earning a glare from Gokudera, "After all, we did experience it and we can point out bad points from each other."

"EXTREMELY good idea!" Ryohei grinned, punching the air.

Gokudera let out a, "tch," before looking away pointedly.

"That's fine," Hibiki said as the rest of the Artiglio nodded approvingly.

Not wasting any more time, the eight of them paired up. Automatically, the Artiglio Family took out their weapons, save for Hibiki, as they activated their flames with a flurry of colour. Chrome and Hibiki wandered away from the main area within the forest and everyone else automatically spread out for more room.

**o.o.o.o**

Gokudera spent his time ignoring the girl who poisoned him rather than using it wisely like he usually would have.

"Um…" Mei murmured.

The silver-haired Italian simply continued to ignore her, taking out a cigarette for the heck of it. He had forgotten his opponent's first reaction during the maze fight and was _almost_ startled when he heard a whistle of fast moving needles. Gokudera glanced down at the girl before examining the damage the needles had managed to cause in a nearby tree.

"Oi you. Are you _trying_ to kill me?" he hissed.

Mei stuck her tongue out before crossing her arms, "What am I meant to be doing?"

"Think of that yourself."

The blue-haired girl frowned before retrieving more needles, proceeding to throw them in succession. Gokudera narrowly dodged them, a tic growing on his forehead. After the sixth needle was thrown, Gokudera snapped, even after the calming waves of nicotine he was inhaling.

"YOU!"

At that, their training started. Dynamite, needles and who knows what were thrown at such fast speeds such that normal eyes couldn't track each individual object.

Despite being horrendously annoyed, Gokudera knew that this was one of the best ways to train. Back at the maze fight, the girl had proven that she knew how to fight. All that was left was experience and the maintenance of flames.

**o.o.o.o**

Yamamoto and Hana, probably the two happiest people within the Vongola and Artiglio Families, talked for a bit before actually starting on their training. Their topics ranged from the weather, to baseball (courtesy of Yamamoto of course) and mafia families. It wasn't until they heard the sounds of Gokudera and Mei fighting, that they zoned back into present time and started, in all seriousness, with their training.

…

"What are we meant to be doing?" Yamamoto asked, looking at the girl in front of him.

"Sparring?" Hana replied, watching what the rest were doing for a short amount of time before looking back at Yamamoto.

Almost immediately, Yamamoto took out his Shigure Kintoki and at the same time, Hana took out her silver whip. Slipping into their fighting stances, a flash of yellow and blue lit up, completely covering their weapons with flickering flames.

They became absorbed in their sparring, only dimly aware of the fact that Ryohei and Mary-Anne were yelling unintelligible words at the top of their lungs.

* * *

**This chapter was fairly short but I felt the need to just cut it there. Next chapter's also short though…**

**Anyway, next chapter – Target 11: Mukuro Appears!**

**Leave a review please~**

**- 37, MHYHM**

**Also, this is completely irrelevant to this story but… what on earth has happened to the Google homepage? It seems so… distorted…**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	11. Target 11: Mukuro Appears!

**I... kinda forgot to update yesterday... so... Yeah... :D**

**Thankyou to the reviewers, of course!**

**Now, enjoy~**

* * *

Target 11: Mukuro Appears!

A small tray of microwave food was pushed through a metal opening of the cell. The second the whole tray was inside the area, the sound of scraping keys and clanging locks echoed through the eerie atmosphere.

Tsuna didn't wish to eat the food.

It wasn't because he was wary of the Cervello Family and what would happen if he ate too much of their food. After all, he does have to survive somehow, especially knowing that the Vongola family and Yukiko's Artiglio family were figuring out how to get them back and that if the Cervello wished to kill them, they would have gladly done so long ago.

It was because the second he ate one morsel of food, the disgusting, numbing feeling of having his flames sucked out greedily overwhelmed him before he could gain enough strength to do… something… anything. However, he knew that he still had to stay alive.

"Right, I've got it."

Tsuna looked at his silver haired cellmate who was holding a tiny piece of bread, "Got what?"

"The times of the vacuum."

"Times?"

Yukiko used the edge of a piece of rock to draw in the ground, "The vacuum can't go on for too long because there would have to be someone controlling it. I assumed that it was almost impossible to keep the rate of the vacuum up for days at a time so there was bound to be a weak point somewhere."

Tsuna had realised this unconsciously. The multiple times he had seen Yukiko try to activate her flames, especially after eating half a mouthful of food, had got him wondering what the hell she was up to.

"That means there's a time when the vacuum is strongest, but also a time when the vacuum is the weakest."

Tsuna nodded, knowing where she was going with this revelation.

"When we receive our food, the rest of the Cervello would be eating as well, otherwise it'd be annoying to supply us with this at different times so at the times before we receive our food, the vacuum would be the weakest."

Yukiko looked at Tsuna quietly, smirking lightly.

Now that the times of the vacuum had been discovered, it was time to plan an escape.

**o.o.o.o**

"EXTREME!"

"NO, MAXIMUM!"

"EXTREME'S BETTER!"

Mary-Anne and Ryohei continued to argue over which phrase was better. Occasionally glancing around, the two of them yelled vehemently at each other for a good half of an hour, only stopping when a poison needle, dynamite or a lash of a silver whip narrowly missed them.

Hana, Mei and Gokudera glared at the two loudest members of the families, each taking a deep breath before yelling, "THEY BOTH MEAN THE SAME THING YOU (GODDAMN) IDIOTS!"

Yamamoto laughed merrily from his spot. Who needs television or computers when you've got your entertainment right in front of you? "Maa maa! Keep it down a bit or the Little Guy would go after you."

"Stupid Turf Head…" Gokudera muttered.

"WHAT WAS THAT, OCTOPUS HEAD?"

**o.o.o.o**

Both Hibiki and Chrome stayed quiet throughout their little walk to a wide clearing. Occasionally, a sound such as a rustle in a nearby bush would disturb the quiet and, in response, Chrome would strengthen her grip on her weapon nervously. The two of them stopped simultaneously when they reached their destination and Hibiki's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

The fast flowing stream that had caused so much hassle in the Maze Fight had miraculously turned into an obedient little rivulet. Compared to the loud, frightening sound of deadly, fast flowing rivers, the picturesque area was completely peaceful and silent. Hibiki turned to the wide-eyed girl wearing her Kokuyo uniform. She stared back, unsure of what to say or do.

"Um…" Chrome began.

"You."

Hibiki turned around to see a certain Disciplinary Committee Head looking back at him with Hibird flapping its wings in the air. Hibari (who looked as though he just woke up from a nap) stood up slowly, brushing off his clothing twice before staring coldly at the two other people.

"You disturbed my nap," Hibari continued, "I'll bite you to death."

'_There's that line again,'_ Hibiki thought as he took out his twin daggers, ready for another fight.

Suddenly, Chrome whispered a small, "Mukuro-sama," and Hibiki almost straightened up immediately in confusion. Surely the person who had been interrupted from his sleep was called "Hibari". Was there another person in the vicinity?

A small gust of wind blew over their heads as a strange curling substance surrounded the Vongola Family's Mist guardian. Hibari lowered his weapon, curious as to what was about to happen. A simple, small laugh was all that was needed to cancel out all of Hibiki's questions and Hibari's curiosity.

"Kufufu~"

Standing in Chrome's stead, was a man. He was taller than her and held himself more confidently. There were more changes here and there but what made Hibiki and Hibari simply stand there and blink was the fact that Chrome and this new man had exactly the same haircut.

The substance surrounding the man disappeared as his smirk grew wider and wider. There was a quiet swish in the air as Hibari raised his tonfas silently, moving back into his fighting stance.

"What are you doing here, herbivore?" Hibari questioned, staring down Mukuro.

"Kufufu~ The baby and Tsunayoshi Sawada struck me a bargain to meet the Artiglio Famiglia's Mist guardian. Of course, I didn't know that _you_ would be here, Hibari Kyoya," he replied, pointing the blade of his trident upwards.

"Perfect. I wanted to finish our fight, herbivore."

"I was thinking the same thing."

Just like that, the two of them started to fight. Hibiki watched as Mukuro and Hibari darted in and out of their fight. Metal against metal, the reverberating sounds echoed around the clearing. Contemplating on whether the fight should go on or should be stopped, Hibiki sat down against a tree and waited, knowing well that he was going to be there for a long time.

* * *

**Short chapter... Ah well...**

**Next chapter: Target 12: Cervello's Motives**

**Leave a review please~**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	12. Target 12: Cervello's Motives

**Sorry again for the late update. My net wasn't working. :D**

**Anyway, thankyou for the reviews and also thankyou to those people who voted in the poll! I've been a bit lazy and haven't been writing as much as I would've wanted to these school holidays so there's a slight chance updates will become monthly rather than weekly. Even so, I shall type as much as I'm bothered to! (Which isn't much, but…)**

**So, enjoy Target 12!~**

* * *

Target 12: Cervello's Motives

'_How many days have we been in here, now?' _Tsuna thought, turning to lie on his stomach before moving to support his head by his fist, _'It's so dark here I can't even tell when it's morning…'_ He darted his eyes left and right to see the cell he had memorised well. There was a stain in the shape of a fish to the left on the walls, a dead fly curled up on the floor to the right. His cellmate was sitting quietly in her spot, cross-legged with eyes closed. From the last time he scanned the area, she was still in the same position.

A cold gust of wind blew into the cell, signifying the opening of the bolted door. Tsuna sneezed as Yukiko's eyes flashed open, taking the opportunity that both of them knew well.

The Cervello were a boring family. They looked exactly the same, talked in exactly the same manner and went around doing things in exactly the same way as they did everyday. In this case, the opening of the door meant that food was about to be pushed in through the little metal opening within a couple of minutes, meaning that the vacuum was weak and it was ideal for…

"Training time," Yukiko said simply, watching her flames flicker slightly. Side-by-side, the black and purple flames disappeared into the invisible vacuum before the "suction" grew in strength, marking the end of training.

Tsuna didn't know why Yukiko's Sky flame was black. He dimly remembered Reborn saying something along the lines of dark and light coloured flames but isn't there a limit to how _dark_ a flame can get?

His thoughts were interrupted by the repetitive resonation of unlocking bolts as, once again, a small tray of microwave food was pushed through the metal opening.

**o.o.o.o**

Mukuro and Hibari continued to fight, even well after everyone else had been called to stop training. Reborn had returned to the main clearing with Dino behind him, both with grim faces. He immediately told everyone to stop whatever it was they were doing and pay attention, until he remembered Hibiki and Chrome had gone elsewhere. As a result, the whole group of eight trooped off into the second clearing, only to see Mukuro's trident and Hibari's tonfas clashing at amazing speeds.

It took Dino's whip, Reborn and Leon, as well as a couple of threatening poison needles from Mei to completely separate the two. With a short greeting and a, "kufufu~", Mukuro was gone, leaving a confused, blinking Chrome in his stead. Almost immediately after, Hibari walked off.

Reborn acknowledged Hibiki's presence with a short nod before he said, "There's much to discuss. We'll need to go back to Dame-Tsuna's home for a bit."

Frowning at the subdued tone of Reborn's voice, Hibiki nodded before the ten of them exited the forest to go to the 10th Vongola Boss' home.

**o.o.o.o**

"Ara! Reborn-chan! Are these your friends?" Nana's beaming face came into view the second Dino rang the doorbell, "I'm sorry, but Tsuna isn't home right now."

"Ah, can we come in, Mama?" Reborn asked, earning strange glances from the Artiglio members.

"Of course!"

For the second time, the Artiglio entered the small building. Almost immediately, I-Pin and Lambo started running around in circles. It was as though they timed each fight just to start when visitors came over…

"I'll bring some tea up if you like," Nana said, smiling.

"Thankyou, Mama."

Reborn was slightly worried. After all, it had been a couple of days since Tsuna returned home...

Once again, the two families, Reborn and now, Dino, were cramped in Tsuna's little room. Tea had been brought up and all the members of the Artiglio Family stared at it forlornly.

"Yu-chan would've liked this," Hana murmured, taking a sip of the green drink. Mei and Mary nodded.

Reborn cleared his throat and everyone in the room looked at the little baby.

"What is it, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked.

"The Cervello are planning something," Dino replied after a glance from the Sun Arcobaleno, "Up to now, we're not completely sure what but it's not going to be good."

"The Cavallone Family discovered something strange in the Cervello Headquarters located in Sicily," Reborn continued, "It wasn't quite pinpointed but a member of their family had nicely given up some information."

Everyone stared at Dino who merely grinned in return. "_Nicely_ given up some information?" Really?

"They said something about flames and an archive," Dino said, completely disregarding the looks of slight horror on everyone's faces, "We're looking up information at the moment, but that's where you guys come in."

Both the Vongola and Artiglio Families looked back at him blankly.

"More information will be needed and in order for this to happen, we got your siblings and the support team of the Vongola to find the Cervello's Japanese base." Both Reborn and Dino looked at the remaining members of the Artiglio Family.

"You've been in touch with our siblings?" Mei asked. It was Gokudera who replied then.

"We all have," he murmured, earning a nod from both Ryohei and Yamamoto, "I must say, you've got a weird family."

"Come to think of it, Anne-Marie was exactly the same as Mary-Anne!" Yamamoto pointed out, laughing afterwards.

"_You have no idea how true that is…_" all of the Artiglio Family thought. With Mary-Anne and Anne-Marie's hyperness, it was unbelievable how… noisy… it got in the Artiglio Family home.

"So we're infiltrating?" Hibiki asked Reborn.

"We can't have everyone go. Dino and I have decided who would suit this the best," was the reply.

"Hibiki-san," Dino addressed, looking at the boy, "in terms of commanding and skill, you would be essential to this. According to Bianchi and Fuuta, Mary-Anne would be good with technology. Gokudera would work well with codes and direction. Yamamoto's sword style is quiet and his skills are good and lastly, Ryohei's determination."

Hibiki, Mary-Anne, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei looked at Dino and nodded.

"Umm…I think I should go back now-"Chrome started.

Everyone turned to look as a sudden thump was heard and there laid the pineapple haired girl on the floor, clutching her chest in agony.

"Hey, are you alright?" Mei asked as she and Hana hurried over to the girl kneeling on the floor, "Hana, why does she look like she's been poisoned?"

Hana placed her hand on Chrome's forehead gingerly. "She's getting a fever… and there are signs of poison in her system. Did she get poisoned recently?" Hana asked in concern.

The rest of the Vongola members looked at one another before Gokudera recounted the story quickly.

"I'm not sure what poison it is." Mei said, frowning as she watched Chrome roll backwards and forwards in pain, "but I do know that if we don't find the cure soon, the poison would attack her heart and it'll be too late to save her."

"For the mean time, give her this," Hana said as she handed over a sleeping pill to Mei. The blue-haired girl supported Chrome's head as she took the pill slowly.

Everyone filed out of Tsuna's room and down to the living room so that their discussion wouldn't disturb Chrome's sleep. "I'll leave Chrome your care," Reborn said to Hana and Mei as the latter nodded.

"She'll be fine," he added as he looked up to see a group of concerned faces.

"We'll be getting some more informa-" Reborn continued.

"Reborn-san, is it ok if I also participate in tomorrow's infiltration?" Hana interrupted, "I'd like to find the cure for Chrome's poison."

Reborn thought for a while, "Ok, that's fine, "He turned to the rest of the group, "Meet at 8:00am tomorrow morning outside the forest for discussion. You are dismissed."

As Dino, the Artiglio and Vongola families stepped downstairs, they were momentarily stopped by Tsuna's mother.

"Have any of you seen Tsu-kun recently? He hasn't been home for some time," she said worriedly.

Everyone looked around nervously until Yamamoto piped up, "He's staying over at our place right now! Dad needed some help at the store and we both needed to do homework because tests are coming up so…"

Everyone else winced. It wasn't a very believable story but…

"Oh! So that's where he went… Mou, Tsu-kun should tell me when he sleeps over at a friends' place! He's not usually like that. Well it's fine now. If it's ok with your father, I'm sure he can stay over," Nana smiled, as Yamamoto nodded, "Good night everyone!" She waved happily as she watched everyone file out of the house.

The rest couldn't help but feel slightly guilty.

**o.o.o.o**

"Is everyone here?" Reborn asked, looking around the small circle outside the forest. It was exactly 8am and everyone was standing as though they were the living dead. After all, no one woke up at such an ungodly hour on a Sunday…

"The Yakyuu-baka's not here yet," Gokudera hissed, "Damn idiot's making everything complicated."

"Ah, this morning I received a call from Yamamoto, saying that he can't make it today because his dad had an accident," Reborn said, "So don't worry about him."

"Wait! Hibiki isn't here yet!" Mary piped out, as Hana and Mei nodded in agreement, "He's been missing since this morning."

"Hibiki's with Dino," Reborn said. With that, the group trooped into Namimori Forest. Dino and Hibiki were waiting in the clearing holding a couple of rolled up pieces of papers.

"Yamamoto won't be able to make it," Reborn explained, sitting down and gesturing for the rest to follow suit.

"Ah… damn, this complicates a bit," Dino replied as he fumbled over the rolled pieces of paper. The rest of the group sweat dropped. "Well then, I'll hand the explaining over to Hibiki-san," he continued.

One of the pieces of paper was unrolled neatly out onto the floor. It showed the basic layout of the ground floor of a building.

"There are two entrances to the Cervello's base," Hibiki said as he pointed at the locations, "And this… is the second floor of the base," he explained as he unrolled another one of the pieces of paper, "Dino-san found out, that there are four important locations in the base that possibly contains the information we want." There were the letters A, B, C and D marked on the two papers. "I will assign a destination for each of us, Gokudera – destination A, Hana – B, Mary – C and Ryohei and I – D," he concluded, "Any problems so far?"

"Yes, why are _you_ in charge?" Gokudera grunted irritably.

"Umm…Hibiki-chan, what's that gigantic box behind you?" Mei asked, completely ignoring Gokudera.

"The Artiglio Support Team had kindly left us with some equipment," Reborn answered, "and of course, they will be assisting you."

Hibiki, with the help of Dino, opened the gigantic box. Everyone gathered around the box and observed the equipment. Gokudera held a walkie-talkie and looked at it curiously.

"Hello? Nii-chan!" the walkie-talkie shouted suddenly. Gokudera was so shocked that he instantly dropped it.

Hibiki went over and picked it up, "Ah, Teion, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing in particular. Just testing it out, over," Teion replied.

"Yes, I can hear you clearly, over and out," Hibiki said, smiling.

"What's this for!" Ryohei yelled as he dashed around in circles, holding a spray can and started spraying the grass "it's brown to the extreme!"

"Ah, that's mine," Hana stated as she grabbed the spray can whilst grinning, "It's for emergencies."

"So when's it going to happen?" Gokudera asked the Sun Arcobaleno.

"Tonight," Hibiki answered instead.

* * *

**This chapter was changed so many times it's actually quite funny. It was passed back and forth, being changed, edited, and changed again by four members of MHYHM, namely (or rather numberly) by me, 82 (the editor), 19 and 98 (who made the ideas for practically the whole chapter).**

**Well, we hope you enjoyed it.**

**Leave a review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	13. Target 13: Infiltration

**Finally updated on time!**

**Once again, this chapter was heavily influenced by 98, so… I hope you enjoy. :D**

* * *

Target 13: Infiltration

It was 9:30pm and the people who were going to infiltrate the base were hiding behind a small collection of bushes, clad in black and holding binoculars and walkie-talkies. The five of them, Gokudera, Ryohei, Hibiki, Mary-Anne and Hana, watched cautiously as five pink-haired, brown-skinned, jacket-wearing people patrolled the front area in large circles.

"Everyone, get your stun guns ready! Ok! Mission Start!" Hibiki announced before flinging his arm out suddenly, preventing the rest from moving forward. "Wait!" he said, observing the situation ahead.

"What the fuck is the problem, now?" Gokudera snapped.

"Hibari-san?" he heard Mary say and he saw Hana's face turning pale. Gokudera turned to look at the situation ahead and saw a familiar figure, tonfa and all. Within seconds, all five of the pink-haired, brown-skinned, jacket-wearing guards were on the floor.

"Reborn-san, why is Hibari here? Over." Hibiki frowned as he spoke into the walkie-talkie calmly.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. Hibari's coming too, over and out," Reborn voice floated over before cutting off.

"… TELL US _BEFORE_!" Gokudera yelled, "OI!"

"Please remember to say over, over and out," Teion's voice replied.

Mary had to hold back Gokudera's arm to prevent him from chucking the object as far as he could before lighting a stick of dynamite to explode the thing into little pieces.

"Calm down, we're going to be found!" Mary exclaimed.

"Ah! Ryohei disappeared!" Hana said as she noticed the original spot that Ryohei was in, was left empty. A few moments later, they saw Ryohei already at the front gate helping Hibari, battling more Cervello guards. Hibiki sighed as he recounted the original plan: to 'sneak in', steal the documents and leave without the Cervello knowing that they had even entered their base. But now that, Hibari had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attracted attention, it was better for them to force their way through.

"Let's sneak in from the back! Hibari and Ryohei can act as decoys," Mary suggested enthusiastically.

"Yeah, they can take care of themselves. We can tell them to retreat once we're done. Ryohei has his walkie talkie with him," Hana added.

"Let's do that then," Hibiki said thoughtfully.

"Mission START!"

The four sprinted to the back of the building and went their own ways.

**o.o.o.o**

_Gokudera and Hana_

Gokudera and Hana headed for the same direction on the first floor. As they quickly dashed down the hallway, they realised that the walls were full of portraits and portraits of pink-haired, brown-skinned, jacket-wearing people; ancestors, perhaps?

"Reborn-san? Over," Gokudera whispered.

"Turn right at the first corner you see"

"How about me? Over," Hana spoke into her walkie-talkie.

"Hana, turn right at the first corner as well, over," this is time Teion, replied.

"Righteo!"

The two turned at the corner and a sudden sound of footsteps echoed through the area, accompanied by the murmuring of voices. Gokudera murmured a quiet, "shit," before, as fast as she could, Hana grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into a nearby room. The room was dark and no one was inside. Good.

"Oi, stupid woman. What the hell are you doing?" Gokudera hissed.

"Be quiet and hurry and put this on!" Hana hissed back, pushing items of clothing into his hands.

"I don't take orders from stupid women… Wait, what are you doing? Oi, stop… Why the hell are you covering my eyes?" A loud spraying noise was heard accompanied by a loud, "MY EYES!"

Moments later, Gokudera was pushed outside into the view of the two Cervello guards running through the corridor.

"Cervello," Gokudera said once before habitually reaching into his pockets for dynamite…

Hana limped out of the room moments later, dressed in a jacket, mask and a pink wig.

'_What the hell?'_ Gokudera thought as she poked him hard_, 'no one will ever believe that…'_

"Did you hear anything suspicious just then?" the guard asked.

"No, but there are intruders at the front. Quickly send more people! They're strong!" she said, holding her arm in fake hurt.

The Cervello guards nodded before moving off. As soon as they were out of sight, Hana straightened up and grinned.

"What on earth? Where did get those clothes from?" Gokudera asked, "and the brown skin…"

Continuing to grin, Hana replied, "Sujimichi Kiyoshi's specialty clothes. Yukiko's brother makes everything for us. By the way, you look absolutely amazing!" At that, she laughed and walked away.

Gokudera looked down to see himself wearing a jacket and then turned his head right to see his reflection in the smooth glass of the framed portrait. Instead of his usual silver hair, it had turned pink and a mask covered his face. And worst of all, his pale skin had magically turned brown.

"WHAT THE –"

"Ah!" Hana turned back, walked up to him and interrupted, "I missed a spot!" With that, she lifted his pink fringe and sprayed the remaining whiteness of his skin, brown. "Perfect!" she grinned cheekily.

**o.o.o.o**

_Mary-Anne_

Mary-Anne glanced up at the building. For a two floor mansion, it sure was a tall building… ah well. At that, she swung her prepared rope and grapple upward, hoping that the metal would catch onto something. The grapple flew into the air and… _missed. _She tried again. It missed again. However, this time the grapple came falling down, down and…

_Whack!_

It hit her right on the face. Finally, the third attempt was a success. She tugged at the rope to confirm that it was safe before breathing in deeply. She grabbed hold of the hemp fibres tightly and started to climb.

She passed the first floor with ease besides the fact that the cloak that she was wearing, continued to have an attempt at freedom. Around ten minutes later, Mary arrived at the window of the second floor. Just as she was about to open the window, she saw one lone Cervello member standing by the glass staring wide-eyed at her.

"_She can't see me. She can't see me. She can't see me,"_ Mary-Anne chanted like as though it were a mantra.

The Cervello member continued to stare as Mary-Anne continued to pray. After a few minutes with no sign of movement from the Cervello guard, Mary sighed in relief. Suddenly, a bullet shot through the window, aiming directly at her forehead.

Only having three seconds to react, Mary-Anne yelled a, "WHAT THE HELL!" as she back flipped smoothly to avoid the bullet. Moments later, she crashed through the broken window and knocked the gun out of the Cervello member's hands. The purple haired girl punched the person directly on the face and watched her collapse to the ground.

Irately, Mary-Anne pulled out her walkie-talkie.

"Teion? Get Teion on, over."

"Hai?" Teion's quiet voice responded.

"The invisibility cloak didn't work!" Mary-Anne yelled.

"It didn't?" Teion asked, innocently.

"NO!"

"Now that I think about it, I think I forgot to test it out. Sorry."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU THINK? DON'T GIVE IT TO OTHERS TO USE IF YOU HAVEN'T TESTED IT OUT YET!" Mary-Anne's voice echoed through the building.

"Hmm… so it needs adjustments. Perhaps the type of material is incorrect or the…" Teion trailed off.

Mary-Anne started to emit a dark aura as the veins on her forehead pulsed threateningly. On the other hand, Teion continued to discuss the millions of probabilities that caused his invention to fail.

"… By the way, thank you so much, Mary nee-san, for testing it out for me!" he said, his tone carrying the small smile adorning his face over the piece of technology. Mary-Anne, who was on the other side of the walkie-talkie, felt the angelic light with sparkles and flowers continuing to flow out of her earpiece,draining out her dark aura.

Mary-Anne softened and took a big breath. Just as she was about to say 'Don't do this again'-

"Over and out," replied Teion.

"OI! DON'T HANG UP ON ME!"

Suddenly a troop of those freaky pink-haired, brown-skinned, jacket-wearing people appeared out of nowhere and surrounded her, all armed with guns.

"Oh, dammit."

**o.o.o.o**

_Hibiki_

Hibiki strolled down the corridor, occasionally glancing out the window to see how Hibari and Ryohei were doing.

'_As expected from Hibari_,' he thought as he saw the sea of pink haired people getting defeated, one after another.

"I'm entering destination D, over and out," Hibiki spoke in the walkie-talkie as he entered the room. He searched the desk and the drawers but found nothing particularly useful. Hibiki frowned and looked around the room once more before his blue eyes landed on a nearby computer.

'_Something important is definitely in there_,' he thought. Glancing around the area, Hibiki crouched down and started searching for the "on" key. He pressed the button and watched as the screen flickered on. There was no start-up tone or login screen, signifying that the computer was already open by the time he came along. After sifting through the documents within the computer, he came across an encrypted folder. However, the folder was password protected.

'_Dammit. I need Mary for codes…'_ Hibiki cursed as his eyes trailed back to the computer.

"Reborn-san, I found something but it needs a password, over" Hibiki whispered into his walkie-talkie.

"Mary-Anne is currently busy," Reborn's crackly voice replied from the device, "so you'll need to find another way to obtain the password, over and out."

Hibiki frowned at the walkie-talkie before putting the object away. Not long after, the sound of approaching footsteps was heard before the doorknob turned slightly. Hibiki darted swiftly across the room to the door. With his back stuck to the wall, he waited as the door squeaked open. As soon as the Cervello entered the roomed, he clasped his hand over her mouth and shut the door behind him.

The Cervello broke free and gasped for air. She turned in time to see an evil glint from the unknown attacker.

"How would you like to answer some questions?" Hibiki asked, cracking a smirk as he drew out one of his daggers. With a quick swing, a few short strands of pink hair drifted to the ground silently.

She squealed, almost deafening Hibiki's ears. "You seriously don't know your situation," he smirked, drawing out his other hand to reveal a second dagger.

* * *

**Next chapter – Target 14: Information Obtained**

**I just realised I didn't post the title of this chapter in Target 12… Ah well.**

**Leave a review please~**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	14. Target 14: Information Obtained

**The poll has pretty much been decided but keep those votes up! :D Also, don't forget to vote **_**five**_** times. We've got some missing ones here and there.**

**Sorry for the late update. I forgot (again).**

**Akuma no tenshi 666: I would update more frequently but it's just that the massive amount of chapters I had prewritten before we started posting has declined drastically from weekly updates. Also, the fact that I'm too lazy to type up more contributes to the weekly, short chapters. However, I am trying to make them a bit longer so my goal has changed from 1,000+ to over 1,750 words per chapter. Not much, but it's getting there. School work isn't helping faster updates or longer chapters either. Sorry. D:**

**Long reply for a short question, yes. I _am_ also just trying to make up excuses but, yeah.**

* * *

Target 14: Information Obtained

To sum it all up, Tsuna and Yukiko were bored. They had no clue as to what was happening outside, nor their whereabouts or what time it was. Frankly, they had given up trying. Night and day changed whenever they wished it to, ironic since they both possessed the Sky Flame.

Tsuna glanced sidewards at nothing before looking down at his jacket. With a sigh, he rubbed the dirty stains and started grimacing at them. From the corner of his eye, he noticed his cellmate glance up.

"I know what you're thinking," Yukiko said simply.

Now, most people would stare and think that she was crazy but after being within a metre radius for god knows how long, he had heard enough strange sentences from her to last a lifetime.

"A shower and a change of clothes would be nice," she continued.

"Yeah," Tsuna replied. He couldn't help but remember the time he had come back from 10 years in the future. His mother was there, hanging up the washing with Lambo and I-Pin running joyously towards her…

Suddenly, there was a loud clatter outside. Faint voices were heard drifting into the cell.

"What're they sayi-"

"Shh," Yukiko placed a finger over her mouth and frowned.

"_- Base. I heard there was five of them."_

"_Only five? They escaped?"_

"_With information too."_

"_Impossible, the higher ups are just trying to scare us."_

"_I don't think s-"_

The voices stopped there as two other Cervello members slammed the cell door open roughly.

"Come with us."

**o.o.o.o**

Hibiki smiled a small smile as he slammed a cupboard shut. Inside the cupboard was an unconscious Cervello member bound by ropes with her mouth taped shut but no one needed to know that…

Hibiki looked back at the computer that had dimmed through the duration of the… information gathering. He glanced down at the small piece of paper in his hands and saw a random collection of numbers, letters and characters.

_1__π__Ar__RCHi'51^3_

Hibiki frowned. There was something strange about the password. Coding? Thinking no more of the topic, he typed the password carefully into the computer. Almost immediately, the folder expanded to show a various assortment of folders with strange names. Taking out a black usb from his back pocket, he swiftly inserted the object in the computer. He dragged the whole password protected file into his usb as another window popped up.

_Estimated time: 10 minutes_

Hibiki cursed silently as his hands found his walkie-talkie.

"Everyone, I've got the information but it'll need some time to transfer. In the meantime, search for the poison cure, over."

There was a scattered collection of confirmations before a rattle sounded from the cupboard behind him. It seemed like that Cervello wasn't knocked out for long enough.

**o.o.o.o**

"Roger," Hana said after hearing the message from Hibiki.

"We're behind time now because _you_ decided to put on that _stupid_ disguise. We could've beaten them you know!" Gokudera hissed.

"Ah well, what's done is done," Hana grinned.

The two of them proceeded to walk along the corridor until they arrived in a corridor lined with multiple portraits of pink-haired, brown-skinned, jacket-wearing people. At the very end of the corridor was a single, marble statue.

"What the fuck is this?" Gokudera frowned as he looked around the blandly yet abundantly decorated room. Hana merely shrugged in reply.

Suddenly, there was a yell and a thud. Automatically, Gokudera whipped out his bombs and Hana, her whip. However, there was something strangely familiar with this person.

"Mary? What on earth are you doing here?" Hana asked as Mary muttered quiet "ow"s.

"Fell from the ceiling. I think there was a trap door," she replied.

"A trap door?" Gokudera enquired.

"I searched around my area but there wasn't anything there. I found a suspicious button and pressed it. That's how I ended up here," Mary-Anne grinned as she lifted herself off the ground. "It was a fun ride, though! I want to do it again!"

"You don't go around pushing suspicious buttons, idiot," Gokudera pointed out before lighting a cigarette.

Hana sighed as she took out her walkie-talkie, "We arrived at our destination. Mary's here too, over."

"Right," Reborn voice replied after several seconds, "Good luck, over and out."

"You fell from a trapdoor, right?" Gokudera asked as he blew out a puff of smoke.

Mary-Anne nodded as she stretched.

"If there was a trapdoor there, there should probably be one here too."

"I guess…"

Mary looked around wildly, checking underneath the boring carpet, around the statue, near portraits but to no avail. After 30 seconds of searching she exclaimed, "I give up!" She slumped on the ground before noticing a strange, lighter patch of white marble on the statue. Standing up again, she shuffled over and poked the strange white part.

"Like I said, do NOT go around pushing suspicious buttons!" Gokudera yelled as the ground began to shake violently. Part of the wall beside them, holding a life-sized portrait of some dead Cervello ancestor, gave way, revealing a dusty, dark, cylindrical staircase.

"I'll give them points for clichéd horror movies," Gokudera muttered before taking out his walkie-talkie.

"Reborn-san?"

There was no reply.

"Reborn-san… Over," he tacked on grudgingly.

"What is it?" Reborn replied, "Over."

"Our destination is actually underground," Gokudera whispered, "We're going in now, over and out."

He stepped down gingerly, followed closely by Mary-Anne and then Hana. After a _very_ long flight of stairs, they arrived in a strange room lit up with ultraviolet lights, making everything white coloured glow menacingly. There was a long, thin metal bridge from one side of the room to the other. Large, white tubes stood on either side of the bridge, filled with viscous liquid and things which looked suspiciously like…

"Wow, the Cervello are actually clones?" Mary-Anne murmured in delight, palms pressed against the glass with green eyes staring in awe.

"What, you thought they were all different people?" Gokudera said mockingly.

"Oi, you two, hurry up and start searching!" Hana frowned.

"But we don't know what the cure is!" Mary-Anne retorted, unhappily removing her hands from the glass tube and looking at her friend.

Hana was standing in front of a table of small bottles. The whip-wielder waved Gokudera and Mary-Anne over before thrusting a bag in each of their hands.

"Take this and put all the bottles in. We have no time to waste."

"I don't take orders from stupid women," Gokudera twitched as he did what she said anyway.

Biting back a reply, Hana concentrated on packing the bottles.

"You sure we're not taking the wrong ones?" Gokudera asked after a minute of silent bottle packing. Just at that time, Mary dropped one bottle and the liquid started bubbling menacingly on the ground.

"I've worked with poisons and antidotes for a long time now," Hana replied, "Poison or cure, as long as we help Chrome-chan, it doesn't really matter. Mei and I can use the rest of the bottles for other purposes.

**o.o.o.o**

"Gokudera!" Reborn hissed into his walkie-talkie, dropping the "over". There was a loud crackle of static accompanied with no reply. Again.

"Oi, Gokudera!"

"Reborn-san! We found the cure, over," Gokudera's crackly voice sounded from the walkie-talkie as Reborn sighed in relief.

"Good. Hibiki couldn't get in touch with you guys and started to get worried."

Another voice drifted from the walkie-talkie in the Arcobaleno's hands.

"Gokudera, Mary, Hana? I've finished transferring the files but the Cervello are going to come soon. Get out immediately and meet over at the front entrance," Hibiki said rapidly.

"Oi, like I said, why do I need to follow your instr-" Gokudera began.

"Over and out," Hibiki cut off the transmission.

"Fuck you!"

"Let's hurry up and get out of here!" Hana yelled as she broke into a sprint.

After running through the underground room, up the stairs, past the corridor of Cervello ancestors and out of the Cervello base whilst narrowly avoiding yelling Cervello members, the three of them watched as Hibari knocked out one more Cervello. Shortly, the Namimori school song echoed around the front entrance. Frowning, he answered his call. After a few seconds, he flicked his phone shut and strolled away.

"Hey! Hibari! Where are you going? Sawada's home? RUN THERE TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei bounded off immediately after, ignoring the fact that he stepped directly on top of a Cervello member's face. Gokudera, Mary-Anne and Hana sighed as they waited for Hibiki to arrive.

**o.o.o.o**

"1πArRCHi'51^3"

Hibiki typed the strange password into the bar as the request for a password popped up. The folders within the encrypted folder were listed in order of creation. Scrolling to the bottom, he found the oldest file. Double clicking on that folder, three word processing documents popped up. Double clicking on one of the documents, another application opened, revealing a page of information.

As everyone cramped up in Tsuna's room skimmed through the document, their eyes widened in disbelief.

"What is this…?"

* * *

**Next chapter – Target 15: Archive**

**Leave a review please!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	15. Target 15: Archive

**Next chapter~**

**Have fun. (:**

* * *

Target 15: Archive

Tsuna and Yukiko were pushed roughly to the ground. Their hands were bound tightly and they did nothing to resist the prodding hands that were pushing their backs down. After all, they were weak from being confined in a cell for who knows how many days.

"Show me your flames," a single Cervello member spoke from in front of them. Tsuna glanced up to see blank eyes staring down at him. Compared to the rest of the Cervello standing around them, this one seemed older and five times more threatening.

"Show me," the older Cervello commanded.

A kick landed squarely on his head as his face was forced to smash into the ground underneath him. Something dripped down from his nose and he gritted his teeth in pain. He heard a quiet sound beside him as his silver-haired cellmate yawned.

'_THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO BE YAWNING!'_ Tsuna screamed telepathically. He was fairly sure she didn't receive his message.

"Then you can go first, girl," the older Cervello sneered.

Tsuna watched as Yukiko glanced up, her purple eyes devoid of emotion. She let out a sigh and looked at the old Cervello right between the eyes.

"Bite me. I can't help it if I yawn."

Tsuna let out a choking sound as he screamed at his cellmate telepathically once again. The older Cervello chuckled quietly, "Clearly you don't understand the predicament you're in at the moment, girl. We can kill you in an instant."

"But you wouldn't now, would you?" Yukiko challenged with a tiny smile.

'_YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE!'_ Tsuna conveyed as strongly as he could through his eyes.

"Yes, you're right, but we have other means of getting you to reveal your flames, girl. Means that are less… tame, I guess you could say," the older Cervello replied smoothly.

"Bullshit. Anything's tame after keeping us in a grubby old cell," Yukiko smirked, "Bring it."

'_NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!'_ Tsuna yelled once more. _Clearly_ she wasn't getting the message. Tsuna attempted to activate his flames but couldn't, _'What? Why isn't it working?'_

He felt a pair of eyes look somewhere on his face. Tsuna's mind clicked suddenly in understanding before the eyes looked away, _'Now why did _her_ message get across but not _mine_?'_

"That stupid cell of yours has taken too much of our flames," Yukiko continued, "although we'd _love_ to give you our flames, we just can't. Mind you, I think these ropes you bound our hands in also steal our flames.

"Replace them," the older Cervello commanded as two Cervello members untied the ropes and replaced them with normal ones.

Immediately, Tsuna could feel his flames increasing rapidly within him. It would only be a matter of seconds until he had enough strength to move properly. The Cervello _were_ stupid enough to allow him to keep his X-Gloves in mitten form. He glanced at his cellmate whose face was devoid of emotion again. Tsuna's eyes wandered and he noticed a small pocketknife dangling around her neck. Her scythe.

"Keep them here for an hour until their flames regenerate," the older Cervello commanded, "All we need is time."

Tsuna grinned inwardly. All they needed was time as well.

**o.o.o.o**

"An archive?" Yamamoto asked.

"Yes, an archive. They need two types of Sky Flames, Tsuna's and Yukiko-san's, namely the purest and strangest, respectively," Reborn summed up.

"Why would they need them, though?" Mei asked, checking Chrome's temperature, which had drastically shot up right before she had been given the antidote. Now, it was nearly drifting towards 40.

"To unlock the archive, I guess," Gokudera replied, frowning.

"The documents didn't say what the Cervello wanted to do with the archive, nor what the archive is in detail," Reborn continued, "Mary-Anne is sifting through the other documents for information."

"But how're Sujimichi's flames the strangest, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked.

"I saw during her fight with Tsuna. The norm for Sky flames is orange. Hers was black. Wouldn't that be strange?"

"I guess."

"Hibiki," Mary-Anne said, looking away from the laptop on the table and at the single male member of the Artiglio family. Said person glanced up enquiringly, "What was the password for this folder? I found another encrypted folder within it."

Hibiki gave the small piece of paper with the password to Mary-Anne who looked at it and frowned.

"_1__π__Ar__RCHi'51^3_"

"It's a bit strange," Hibiki murmured, "It seems as though it's a rearranged word or something."

Placing her elbow on the table and leaning her face on her fist, Mary-Anne examined the little piece of paper.

"Inari's Archive," Gokudera spoke out suddenly.

"Huh?" Yamamoto asked, layering his small question with a tonne of confusion.

"Yakyuu-baka, pay attention more in history," Gokudera hissed as he rewrote the password on a separate piece of paper and rearranged the character order.

_1__π__Ri'5 __Ar__CH1^3_

_Inari's Archive_

"Inari's Archive," Reborn repeated, "Inari is the goddess of harvest in Japanese mythology."

"As expected from Reborn-san!" Gokudera praised.

Yamamoto, Hibiki, Mei continued to look at Reborn and Gokudera strangely. Hana and Ryohei on the other hand, nodded in agreement.

"But what does a goddess have to do with Cervello's archive?" Gokudera muttered to himself.

"Found something!" Mary-Anne exclaimed, clapping her hands together in delight.

"What is it?" Reborn asked.

"I typed in _1__π__Ar__RCHi'51^3_ but it wasn't right but _Inari's Archive_ went through! I'm so smart!" she continued grinning in her own world.

Annoyed, Gokudera took the laptop from the purple haired girl and speed-read the information within.

"Two people with the _so and so_ flames, yeah, yeah, ah!"

That simple exclamation caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"The ceremony for the opening of Inari's Archive will take place at the midnight of the full moon in the fourth day of the first week of the eight month this year, where the earth is closely aligned with the sun and moon in order to activate the pathway between now and later," Gokudera dictated, "Now and later? What kind of information is that?"

Reborn's Leon turned into a calendar.

"Fourth day of the eighth month this year? But that's two days from now!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

"Idiot, it'd be one day if it's 12am of the fourth," Gokudera pointed out.

"But where?" Mei asked while ignoring Yamamoto's laughter and Gokudera's bickering.

"There's a map here, if that's anything," Ryohei pointed out.

… That was too convenient.

Reborn's eyes scanned the electronic map, "Namimori Forest. Of course it would be in the place where we would think would be the most obvious area thus we stay away from."

"Come again?" Mary-Anne said.

Reborn sighed, "Don't worry. Either way, we know it's in Namimori Forest and that's enough."

"So Tsuna and Sujimichi-san will be there?" Yamamoto asked. Reborn nodded in response.

"Get your things organised, practice for the rest of today and be prepared tomorrow. I'll tell Hibari," Reborn said.

"Why do we need that freak?" Gokudera frowned.

"He is the strongest guardian after all."

Before Gokudera could protest in any way, or even get a syllable of the words "right hand man" out of his mouth, there was a quiet coughing.

"Chrome-chan!" Mei and Hana exclaimed, running over to the girl's side.

"M-Mukuro-sama," Chrome whispered, coughing again.

"So you are here, Mukuro," Reborn stated, looking out the window. A white owl was perched on the windowsill silently.

"Kufufu~ Usually I wouldn't let my dear Chrome go out like this but the upcoming battle sure will be interesting," Mukurou said before flying away.

"Oi, what do you mean?" Gokudera yelled after the bird before swearing under his breath.

"Are you ok, Chrome-chan?" Mei asked, checking Chrome's temperature once more. It had finally stabilised.

"I-I'm fine," Chrome winced, "Just a bit tired. I should be fine to help get the Boss back."

"Really?" Hana asked in a worried tone, "Don't exert yourself too much."

"I'll be good by then," Chrome murmured, "The poison only affected my motor skills minimally and a bit of my senses were weakened but they should be better by tomorrow."

Mei and Hana sighed in relief.

"So, everyone, rest well and prepare for a big fight tomorrow," Reborn concluded, "We will definitely bring Tsuna and Yukiko-san back."

* * *

**Next chapter – Target 16: Bring Them Back!**

**Leave a review please~**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	16. Target 16: Bring Them Back!

**They're coming back. xD**

**There was a mass increase of visitors reading Target 15 for some reason even though there were no reviews. Please leave a review. They make us happy. :D**

**Anyway, have fun.**

* * *

Target 16: Bring Them Back!

Tsuna felt his energy course back through his veins. It had been so long since he felt this strong. He heard the quiet breathing of Yukiko beside him and the faint glint of black flames shimmering and disappearing. So that's what she was doing.

Tsuna concentrated in making the smallest of flames to burn through the ropes. Immediately, a small burst of orange shot out.

'_Damn! It's been too long and the flame-stealing cell changed my perception of a small flame.'_

The small slip-up earned him a purple death-glare before he went back to concentrating. This time, a much smaller flame appeared. Tsuna frowned. His flames were orange and were harder to conceal than Yukiko's black flames. But her scarf and hair were white and silver…

He felt the ropes loosening. Only 20 minutes out of the hour they were given had gone by. Thank god this was the past and not 10 years into the future, where the understanding of flames had become well developed.

After another 10 minutes of burning, the ropes finally became loose enough to break free from. He glanced at Yukiko to find her looking right back at him. Suddenly, he felt a kick on his back and was forced to the ground, his hands automatically breaking free of the weak rope and slamming on the ground in order to avoid his face smashing into the ground.

"No telepathic messages when I'm here, boy," the older Cervello spoke before noticing his unbound hands. Her face rapidly grew livid as Yukiko yelled.

"SCREW STEALTH MODE! JUST RUN!"

As fast as they could, the two mafia family bosses picked themselves off the ground and sprinted towards one of the many doors that surrounded the room.

Needles came raining down, grazing, scratching, and piercing through clothes and skin as both Tsuna and Yukiko collapsed.

"We thought something like this might happen," the older Cervello spoke menacingly, "so we prepared something in advance."

"These needles… Mei?" Yukiko whispered.

Tsuna immediately came into an understanding. These needles were what poisoned Chrome! Alarmingly, Tsuna felt his energy drain rapidly in a blur of orange flames. Similarly, Yukiko breathed quietly, surrounded by a misty black substance.

"So it takes less than thirty minutes for your flames to come back to normal, hm?" the older Cervello observed, "Well, judging from your flames, I'm sure we've got the right ones."

The older Cervello turned to another Cervello member and started directing her around. The last words Tsuna heard before sinking into an uncomfortable unconsciousness was…

Namimori Forest.

**o.o.o.o**

"We've only got today to prepare," Reborn stated, "Spend that time wisely."

"But what are we meant to do, Little Guy?" Yamamoto asked.

"Climb a cliff, do what you want. As long as it's productive, I don't care."

The reply left everyone speechless. So this was a form of the famous Sun Arcobaleno, Reborn's Spartan Training?

"But Hibiki," Reborn continued, "you should spend your time learning from Chrome. She'll be outside soon.

Hibiki responded with a short nod and left.

The group were situated on the rooftop of the school building. All of them had conveniently forgotten that they had school and decided it would be too suspicious if they were to all skip that day. The Artiglio Family, however, hadn't enrolled at any school yet so they were free to do whatever they pleased.

Gokudera let out a sigh, "School isn't the same without Jyuudaime."

The bell that signified the end of lunch chimed at that and the group dispersed into their respective classes.

"Yamamoto-san, Gokudera-san," a soft voice spoke from behind the rain and storm guardians.

"Ah, Sasagawa-chan!" Yamamoto exclaimed while Gokudera scowled, "What's up?"

"Have you two seen Tsuna-kun recently?" she asked, "He hasn't been around for a couple of days and Nii-san isn't saying anything. Haru-chan and I are starting to get worried."

"Oh… he's… er… Staying over at my place for the time being," Yamamoto rushed, "He's been helping Dad and I at the shop."

Gokudera's frown deepened, _'Yakyuu-baka! It's not that believable _now_ since he should be able to go to _school_. No one's going to believe your shit lyin-"_

"Oh! I see," Kyoko lit up, "I thought something was wrong. Ah, thanks Yamamoto-san." At that, she, together with Yamamoto, proceeded to enter the classroom with a smile while Gokudera stood frozen in his place, unable to comprehend the amount of horribly _gullible_ people he knew.

**o.o.o.o**

The dismissal bell echoed throughout the school grounds of Namimori as the scraping of chairs and gradually increasing chatter became abundant. Yamamoto and Gokudera found Ryohei packing up from his gym class and the three of them proceeded to walk towards the front entrance of the school. Hibari was quietly concealed within the shadows as all four members of the Vongola Family waited quietly for the arrivals of Chrome, Reborn, and the four remaining members of the Artiglio Family.

Mei and Hana arrived first, talking happily to each other about their newfound creations. In their hands, were two cardboard boxes, which they set down as they waited for Chrome, Reborn and Hibiki. Shortly after, the three remaining members appeared, Hibiki carrying another box and Chrome walking quietly alongside the Arcobaleno. Placing the last box on the ground, Hibiki straightened up and all nine of the people waited for Reborn to speak.

"The boxes are packed with your weapons, box weapons and more," Reborn spoke as Hana picked up Yamamoto's Shigure Kintoki and threw it to him. Similarly, Mei picked up one of the boxes and emptied the contents on Gokudera's feet.

"Oi," Gokudera frowned, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Mei gave a smile as she attempted to place the now empty box on top of Gokudera's head. As a result, the cardboard exploded into pieces and the small squabble ended then.

Reborn sighed as the mass of blackened cardboard drifted slowly to the ground. "We will wait for the Cervello to come before doing anything. We still don't know what the archive will do or where Tsuna and Sujimichi are being kept."

The Vongola nodded in understanding as they picked up their respective weapons and box animals. Hibari walked off with his jacket trailing in his wake and little Hibird flying beside him.

Ignoring Hibari's absence and the frown from Gokudera, Reborn continued, "The Cavallone Family have actually found the position of the archive but there wasn't enough time to locate it physically. We'll be heading there now. That's all."

The nine remaining people nodded as the group headed towards Inari's Archive concealed within Namimori Forest.

**o.o.o.o**

It was around 8:30pm when the group entered the forest. A sense of nostalgia swept through them all as they remembered this as the place where it all started. The letters, the deception, the fight, the smoke and the confusion built up, resulting in a gain of allies and now, the comeback.

The group hid in the foliage of the forest in pairs carefully determined by the matching of fighting styles. Chrome hid in the trees closest to the location of the archive with Hibiki slightly further behind. Yamamoto and Hana were concealed in a ring even further back, then Gokudera and Mei, and lastly, Ryohei and Mary. There were a couple of Cervello guards patrolling around the area in large, complicated patters but none of the Vongola or Artiglio could see the archive itself.

Reborn was situated along the outskirts of the forest, accompanied by Dino and his Family. Their little area was completely covered with winding wires, making intricate designs along the border. Much to Gokudera's displeasure, the walkie-talkies were reused but it was resolved that the "over"s were not needed. Completely prepared for anything, everybody was ready for their final fight.

Suddenly, there was a loud clatter that resounded through the whole forest. Immediately, Reborn received multiple alerts through the walkie-talkies. One message stood out from all the rest.

"I see the archive," Hibiki whispered.

Reborn thought for a while, "How large is it?"

"It's arou-"

Reborn frowned, "Hibiki?"

"They're here, over and out."

They're here? Tsuna and Sujimichi Yukiko?

"Reborn-san," Gokudera's voice spoke.

"What is it?" the Arcobaleno replied.

"Jyuudaime and Sujimichi Yukiko are here."

"Yes, Hibiki told me."

"The… archive…"

"What does the archive look like?"

"It looks like a small church without the cross and the stained glass."

"How old?"

"I'm not sure, I can't see clearly from here."

"There're funny squiggly lines in the shape of a rectangle," Yamamoto spoke out suddenly.

"Squiggly lines?" Reborn questioned.

"Yakyuu-baka, they're called _runes_," Gokudera hissed.

As Yamamoto began laughing and Gokudera continued to bicker, Reborn started to piece things together.

'_Inari is the goddess of harvest. Runes. Mythology? Religion?'_

Reborn was figuratively slapped back to reality when he heard a loud, echoing, piece of colourful language.

"FUCK!" Gokudera bellowed and all Reborn heard from the walkie-talkie was rustling and a stray explosion.

"Hey, Little Guy," Yamamoto addressed.

"Hm? What's happening?" Reborn asked.

"They found us. We'll be going now."

**o.o.o.o**

None of them could stay concealed in the foliage of the trees. They were cautious about their hiding. Mammon chains, low voices, but it seemed having silver hair amongst a mass of dark green leaves seemed out of the ordinary. A thin needle skimmed past Gokudera's cheek as memories of Chrome and her fever replayed themselves in his brain. With a loud, "fuck", Gokudera threw a stick of dynamite in the needle's general direction and didn't blink as it exploded.

"We've got some extra antidote from the earlier infiltration," Mei said, rapidly taking out a small bottle, "We'll have to come out of hiding. Hibiki, Hana-chan, Yamamoto and Ryohei are already down there."

Gokudera didn't move a centimetre as Mei injected the antidote into his bloodstream. With a nod, the two of them jumped down from the tree they were in and they took in their surroundings.

There were seven Cervello on the ground. With a flurry of coloured flames, Hibiki, Hana, Yamamoto, Ryohei, and Mary, who was still concealed in the trees shooting bullets from her spot, continued to fight. The sun had already set and the full moon was starting to rise above their heads.

The archive stood there, towering over the people, with runes decorating all around the wall. There were no windows or doors, nor any source of life. What would the Cervello want to do with a couple of old historical documents?

Towards the left of the rune decorated archive, were two figures. Both of them were unconscious but it was too obvious who they were.

"TSUNA!"

"JYUUDAIME!"

"YU-CHAN!"

"SAWADA!"

"YUKIKO!"

Both of the figures moved slightly, fingers twitching and head turning. However, the members of the Vongola and Artiglio were unable to be focused on the reuniting of their respective Bosses.

The Cervello were skilled. They had started developing technology but were still experimenting with box weapons. The creatures they released were weak and easy to fight off and none of the Vongola had unleashed their box animals as of yet.

The situation was getting worse. More and more Cervello were arriving and joining in on the fight or increasing the protection around Tsuna and Yukiko's flame-stealing cage but one person arrived and fought down a good number of them in a matter of minutes.

"Hibari Kyoya," Hibiki addressed as a glint of silver tonfas hit one Cervello squarely in the face.

"We still haven't finished our fight, herbivore," Hibari responded, straightening up and knocking out one Cervello effortlessly.

Tsuna and Yukiko were half-conscious, able to hear the fighting around them but not conscious enough to process what was going on. They were both weak again, unable to fight the speed of which their flames were being stolen.

Suddenly, one Cervello stood out from the rest. She, like the others, had brown skin, a mask and pink hair but the air around her seemed haughty and powerful.

"Fight as you will. There are always replacements. Either way, the time will come and you will be able to do nothing about it," she drawled.

* * *

**That's another chapter over. Man these things are going fast...**

**But yes...**

**Next chapter - Target 17: The Book**

**Leave a review please. :D**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	17. Target 17: The Book

**Last chapter of this arc~**

**Target 18 onwards is the start of a new arc so stayed tuned!**

**This story will miss out on one week of updates due to major revisions needed in Target 18. Even so, it's ending with a cliffie and an extra week of waiting would create suspense, wouldn't it? :D**

**But yes, enjoy!**

* * *

Target 17: The Book

'_Nngh… It's noisy. Lambo? I-Pin? Keep it down a bit. No, it doesn't sound like them. What is this place? It's so dark.'_

Tsuna opened his eyes groggily only to be greeted with darkness, save for the pale white light that was emitted from the full moon up ahead. He heard the sound of metal against metal and strange yells left and right. Blinking slowly, he turned to his left side to see his silver-haired cellmate sitting in the fetal position, equally confused.

A blur of pink and a glint of silver caught his attention as he struggled to gain full consciousness. The masses of dark shapes slowly shifted, becoming more detailed, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness around him.

'_Yamamoto? Gokudera-san? Onii-san? Was Hibari there too?'_

"Fight as you will. There are always replacements. Either way, the time will come and you will be able to do nothing about it," a voice spoke from within the clearing darkness. It was faint and Tsuna had to strain his ears to properly make out what was being said.

Shifting towards a more comfortable position, Tsuna looked around for the source of the voice. Surely enough, his eyes landed on a cloaked figure.

Pink hair.

Cervello?

Immediately, his head cleared of all confusion as he processed the situation. He remembered being shot down with needles. The dull, burning pain as his energy depleted quickly seemed as though it had happened just a few seconds ago. He remembered the older Cervello's observation of regaining flames in less than thirty minutes and of course, the last words he heard.

Namimori Forest.

As if a switch was pressed in his brain, Tsuna's surroundings became familiar. The dark shapes morphed into trees and the area became impeccably clear. Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei and Hibari, along with three members of the Artiglio Family were fighting against a large group of pink-haired women. Was that another Artiglio member concealed in the trees?

"An hour before midnight," the voice, now recognised as that of the older Cervello, spoke, "Remove the barrier. They need as much flames as they can get."

'_Barrier? Flames?'_

Tsuna immediately recognised the opportunity. The Cervello still believed it took half an hour to regain their flames, adding more time as a precaution. The moment he regained most of his flames, he could bust Yukiko and himself out with an X Burner… No, his flames were too bright.

The force tugging at his flames vanished as the familiar sensation of energy coursing through his veins overwhelmed his body. From the corner of his eye, he saw Yukiko's purple eyes snap open and glance at him discreetly. She gave a small nod as her hands moved towards the small pocketknife around her neck. She closed her eyes and breathed evenly before tugging the pocketknife rapidly.

In an instant, her silver bladed scythe appeared, black flames coating the surface menacingly. Before the Cervello had enough time to realise what was going on, Yukiko yelled one word.

"DUCK!"

Tsuna swung his body flat on the ground as Yukiko gave a mighty swing. The sharp blade of the scythe together with her black flames sliced the cage they were in neatly. For a split second, the cage stood as it was, showing no signs of damage before a loud crash sounded. The top half had completely slid right off. Tsuna jumped up with a burst of his orange flames as his X-Gloves lit up, he was airborne.

At that point, a tree fell in his direction, forcing him towards the ground. Yells erupted simultaneously as Tsuna picked himself off of the ground.

"JYUUDAIME!"

"BOSS!"

"TSUNA!"

"SAWADA!"

One Cervello immediately came up to him, brandishing a short sword emitting green lightning flames. In retaliation, Tsuna fought off the blows with his X-Gloves, unable to gain enough time to retreat to the sky. The Cervello were skilled.

Behind him, Yukiko was swinging around her scythe dangerously, attempting to slash one Cervello in the shoulder. All her opponent did was jump back agilely, avoiding the scythe but unable to attack.

Tsuna heard a whistling through the trees as he moved away just in time for an arrow to pass through the space where his head was in previously. He heard one of the female Artiglio members call out Yukiko's name before the silver-haired girl was struck in the right shoulder, ripping her white scarf, which had grown dirty whilst the two of them were inside the Cervello's cell. He parried off another blow from his opponent as he heard the girl behind him hiss in pain.

The older Cervello scoffed, "You just never learn, don't you?"

The remaining Cervello who were not occupied with fighting surrounded him and Yukiko, securing their arms. They both managed to fight back a couple here and there but there was just too many of them. What were they, clones?

"Get your hands off Jyuudaime!" Gokudera hissed, throwing a bomb in Tsuna's direction.

"Hiie! Gokudera-san!"

"Ah, sorry Jyuudaime."

Chuckling, the older Cervello commanded the others to come forward, "It is time."

Unable to struggle, Tsuna and Yukiko stood unwillingly in front of the runes of the archive while silently cursing. Smiling a small smile, the older Cervello twirled two needles between her fingers before jamming them into Tsuna and Yukiko's arms, causing them to grit their teeth in pain. The Vongola and Artiglio members dropped their fights, completely wary of what would happen if the archive were to be unlocked. Running forward, they were met with a shower of sharp arrows.

"This ceremony is not to be disturbed," the older Cervello spoke, guiding Tsuna and Yukiko's limp arms towards the runes of the archive wall. Their respective flames started to appear as if a tap was turned on. A minute passed before the runes lit up in a bright, blinding white. The purest and the strangest flames had activated a switch and a door magically appeared. The Cervello had finally achieved their goal.

"Inari's Archive."

Tsuna and Yukiko were discarded like trash. They were no longer needed. Cervello started entering the archive, ignoring their battles and marching in like soldiers.

Standing up weakly, having all their flames drained out once more, Tsuna and Yukiko walked painfully towards the archive. The first thing they noticed was that the room was free of people. The second thing, however…

"What is this place?" Tsuna whispered in awe as the two of them looked around the room.

Inside the archive were rows and rows of winding bookshelves, all of them packed with paper. Glittering gold letters on the spines of books stared back at them and older, tattered documents revealed their yellow pages proudly, flaunting their contents about many years ago. Spiral staircases were standing strongly, neat and clear of dust and blemishes. However, all of this was _nothing_ compared to the single, ornate podium standing motionlessly in the middle of the room.

Sitting quietly upon the podium, was a single book. That book, full of yellow pages of wisdom and clean pages of knowledge, was much larger than the rest. The cover was pure black, with a simple gold border complete with a crimson ribbon attached to the spine.

Walking up to the podium, Tsuna and Yukiko stared at the book. Lifting a hand, Tsuna picked the book up and flipped it over. All there was on the back cover was a single symbol, dimly reminding him of a fox's head. Flipping the book back to the front, he attempted to move the cover to see what was inside. It didn't budge. Frowning, he tried again but to no avail, the book didn't wish to be opened.

"So… why did they want this place?" Tsuna asked, receiving a shrug in reply.

"What did they call this place?" Yukiko questioned, "Something archive."

Tsuna shook his head. He couldn't remember what they said amongst the pain and confusion.

At that point, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Ryohei, Hibari, Kusuri Hana, Hatsuon Mei, Mary-Anne Schioppo and Kirifuda Hibiki ran into the archive.

"So this is Inari's Archive…" Gokudera whispered.

The air around them whirled wildly, sucking them in towards the book as though it were a cyclone attempting to get everything to the eye. Everyone clung desperately at something nearby to stay down. Pages of the thick, mysterious book flapped rapidly in the wind, suddenly stopping on a certain page as a bright circle illuminated.

For a second, the wind stopped and everything calmed down before the wind sped up once more, even fiercer than before. Tsuna's grip slackened slightly and that was all it took for his body to be sent flying towards the core of chaos.

"Shit, JYUUDAIME!" Gokudera yelled, arms stretched out as others cried his name, holding their hands out as well.

"Everyone!" Tsuna yelled, stretching his arm out as far as he could.

"Got you!" Yukiko winced as she caught hold of his hand.

The injuries to her shoulder from the fight beforehand did nothing to help her grip on Tsuna. Slowly but surely, she felt Tsuna's hand slipping away.

"Sujimichi-san, it's alright. Don't force yourself," Tsuna whispered, earning a purple-eyed glare.

"The hell are you talking about, midget? I'm not forcing anything. As a fellow mafia boss, it's obvious we keep each other out of danger," Yukiko snapped, only gripping onto his fingertips.

"Sujimichi-san…"

A couple of seconds passed, as their hold grew agonisingly weaker. Their hands lost contact as Tsuna felt himself get caught up with the wind.

"TSUNA!" Yukiko yelled amongst the yelling from the Vongola members.

Feeling himself getting sucked into the book, Tsuna only thought of one thing.

'_She actually said my first name…'_

He heard the others shouting in panic before his vision was engulfed with momentary darkness. Pink haired figures disappeared in the distance as his senses were cut off.

Suddenly, he felt himself falling down, lower and lower before promptly falling flat on his face. His body was unable to stop moving as he felt himself tumbling down a very bumpy pathway before finally stopping with his face, once again, planted on the surface underneath him.

"Ow…" Tsuna said as he rubbed his nose. Glancing up, he saw the remnants of smoke clearing away from where he landed originally. Then, he saw the cause of his bumpy trip. The staircase he fell down was nothing close to soft. Looking around, saw a table, chairs, a cupboard and realised he was in someone's house.

"Where am I?"

* * *

**Ooh. Where is he? Take a guess. xD**

**Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, this story will miss out on next week's update so please bear with us.**

**Meanwhile, the poll will be closed if I remember to do it because everything's set.**

**The results:**

**Tsuna x Yukiko**

**Yamamoto x Hana**

**Gokudera x Mei**

**Ryohei x Mary-Anne**

**Due to a strange fluctuation of Hibiki's votes, it was decided that Hibiki will not be paired with anyone. There's something in store for Hibiki later on so… We hope you enjoy. :D**

**Oh, and it would be nice if you guys were to leave a message about what you want more in this stories. For example, more action, adventure, romance (please no), etc.**

**Constructive criticism is always welcomed so until Target 18, farewell!**

**Next chapter – Target 18: I'm WHERE?, out on the 30****th**** of August!**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	18. Target 18: I'm WHERE!

**My net was disagreeing with me, as always, thus the late update. Sorry! But yes, Tsuna's whereabouts are finally revealed, along with a very strange Yukiko.**

**Also, we have very little support for this story! D: We know that there are many readers out there, some of which send us messages or leave reviews, but that some is also very minimal. I've also been very lazy recently and the lack of messages/reviews has kinda made me lose my motivation. Please spend a little bit of time writing us a little comment or something, just enough to make me get my lazy butt to move and start writing some more.**

**Thankyou and enjoy Target 18!**

* * *

Target 18: I'm WHERE?

Tsuna jumped to his feet and started looking around frantically. Everything in his surroundings was shiny, clean, new and _extremely_ expensive-looking, not to mention completely unfamiliar.

'_Did something happen to me?'_ Tsuna thought. He remembered the archive, the runes, the staircase, the podium, the book, the wind…

He spotted a mirror perched proudly on one of the pristine off-white walls. Shuffling uncertainly to the mirror, half expecting a green Cyclops to be staring back at him, he prayed silently to himself before snapping his eyes open and staring at his reflection.

At first glance, he realised everything physically about him was exactly the same. Same hair, same eyes, same dirty skin from being kept in a cell with no shower for who knows how long and also, same… height…

Once he looked closely, he realised something was extremely off. Where on earth did his injuries from the previous fight go? Since when was he wearing a clean black suit and tie? Dropping his eyes to his body, he stared in horror as he had indeed somehow miraculously changed into this strange getup. What's more, the clothing didn't even _fit_. His clean black suit and tie were practically falling off his shoulders. "No wonder it's a bit breezy in here," Tsuna muttered to himself, completely dismissing his sudden change of clothing and focusing on his whereabouts.

The sound of footsteps echoed from a nearby corridor, which was covered with numerous artworks, as Tsuna looked around wildly for a place to hide. Dashing under the winding staircase he had fallen off of, Tsuna watched as the owner of the footsteps came into view.

"Ah. I swear I heard him here a moment ago," the person trailed off, looking side to side once before shrugging and continuing on her walk.

Tsuna's eyes widened as he sprinted out of his hiding place, calling after the silver-haired, purple-eyed person. Who else had that strange, silver, waist-length hair and strange purple eye colour combination?

"Sujimichi-san!" Tsuna exclaimed, causing Yukiko to stop and turn sharply, "Where are we? What is this place? Where's everyone else? What happe-"

"Tsuna?"

Was it just him or did _everyone _seem to grow fast except for himself? Yukiko was a couple of centimetres taller than she was ten minutes ago. Like him, she had also changed clothing. Her scarf was still there, but her coat was longer and white, rather than black. Additionally, herskin was clean, unlike his.

'_It really isn't my day today,'_ Tsuna sighed mentally, _'God's hating.'_

"It's Tsuna isn't it?" Yukiko asked, bending down a bit to look Tsuna straight in the eyes, their faces only centimetres away.

Tsuna jumped back and retreated a couple more metres, his back against the wall and the mirror beside his head. Yukiko cocked her head to the side and walked forward a couple of steps.

"You've shrunk," she stated.

'_No, It's just you who grew.'_

Suddenly, Tsuna realised something strange about Yukiko. It wasn't that she called him by his first name so casually, but she seemed more… Mature?

Yukiko chuckled, "it's like the time we were 14 all over again. You always were the shorter one."

'_Seems like the time we were 14?'_

"Come to think of it," Yukiko continued her monologue, "you do seem as though you were 14. And why's your skin so _dirty_?"

Tsuna continued to say nothing. Back in the cell when the Cervello held them captive, Yukiko didn't say much. Now, she was actually talking to an unresponsive person. Talking a lot, at that. What on earth was going on?

Memories ran through his brain as Tsuna jolted in understanding. He had experienced something like this before but instead of waking up in a coffin this time, he fell down a flight of stairs…

"ADULT YUKIKO?" Tsuna exclaimed.

Yukiko blinked at him before asking oh so casually, "How old are you now?"

"F-Fourteen. And y-you?"

"Twenty nine."

"TWENTY NINE?" Tsuna yelled. The mysterious book in Inari's Archive transported him to the future. He was now living fifteen years in the future. The future. _AGAIN?_

There was a loud slam of a door in the distance, followed by a loud conversation by someone who sounded strangely like Adult Gokudera.

Yukiko sighed, "They're at it again. Let's go break it up."

The two of them walked off (more like Adult Yukiko dragged Tsuna) towards the sound of the very loud conversation as Tsuna began to pick up what they were saying.

"- was the _tenth time_ you visited the police station this month! Can't you control yourself and your bombs?"

"Well excuse me if I have a fucking right to protect myself. What should I do? Stand there and _let_ myself get hurt? Jeez woman, fix your stupid brain!"

"What do you mean '_fix your brain'_? _I_ wasn't the one who got sent to the police station for throwing _bombs_ at innocent people."

"What's going on here?" Yukiko demanded, her voice strong with authority.

Tsuna stared. That blue-haired woman… Hatsuon Mei? Fifteen years later version?

"It's none of your business, Yu-chan!" Mei yelled, earning a glare from the silver-haired mafia boss, "You just don't understand what I've been dealing with for the past three years!"

"Actually, with all that yelling, I get a decent idea," Yukiko muttered quietly to herself, "But you should also learn to control yourself a bit, Mei. You shouldn't be too harsh on him."

"But it's the _tenth_ time!" Mei exclaimed, "That's it. I want a divorce."

Yukiko sighed, "That's the forty fourth time you've said that this month."

"That's beside the point!" Mei huffed, crossing her arms before noticing Tsuna hunched next to the silver-haired woman. "Aren't you… Tsuna-san?"

Yukiko nodded, "Fourteen year old Tsuna. Not sure what happened, though. Something like Lambo's Bazooka?"

Mei thought for a moment, "Probably."

At that, Gokudera showed himself, looking highly pissed off, "Stupid woman. I'm going for a bit. I'll be back home la- JYUUDAIME!"

"Gokudera-kun!"

"Jyuudaime! It's been a long time!" Gokudera exclaimed, his voice trembling with emotion.

Tsuna smiled sheepishly before another person came into view.

"Takeshi brought some cheesecake. Does anyone want some?" Hana said happily before noticing Tsuna standing there, "Eh? Tsuna-san? What happened to you?"

Tsuna wasn't able to speak. He hadn't heard many people use Yamamoto's first name, let alone so casually. This was way more to take in than when he was ten years in the future and under the attack from the Millefiore. It was almost _too_ much. It was amazing how much a five-year difference in the future could make.

"Ah. Tsuna's fourteen now," Yukiko answered, "We'll go down for dinner later. He should get cleaned up."

"Ok! Don't be late," Hana smiled before she and Mei walked away happily with Gokudera following behind them grumpily.

Tsuna found it absolutely amazing that no one reacted strongly upon learning his past self was here. It was as though people of the past popped up randomly on a daily basis.

Suddenly, Yukiko turned to Tsuna, who winced slightly under the sudden attention.

"Firstly, we'll get you cleaned up," Adult Yukiko ordered, "then, you tell me what happened."

Tsuna nodded in agreement. He was fine with that. Turning to leave, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Um. Where's the bathroom?" he asked awkwardly, resisting the temptation to scratch the back of his head.

Yukiko raised an eyebrow and sighed, "Ah well."

Grabbing Tsuna's wrist, Yukiko dragged him towards, where he hoped was, the bathroom.

"Your clothes from now won't fit you. I guess you can be relieved that you did grow a bit within fifteen years," she said simply. Tsuna couldn't do anything in response. Instead, he was much too absorbed in examining what he assumed was his home or the home of someone close to him.

Everything was neat and in order. The surfaces on the tables and vases around the winding corridors were completely dust-free. The grounds were mostly floorboards, with some rooms being tiled, and others being carpeted.

Unable to look around any longer, Yukiko stopped abruptly in front of a pretty door.

"This is one of the bathrooms," she said, sounding like a tour guide leader to Paris.

"Ah, thankyou," Tsuna replied, placing a hand on the doorknob.

"Everything like towels and soap are inside. I'll have clothes sent up."

"Thankyou again."

Expecting her to walk away, Tsuna opened the door and stepped in, almost tearing the door from its hinges when he realised Yukiko was following him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tsuna yelled in horror.

The silver-haired woman shrugged, "I forgot how childish you were at this age." She sighed, "It's not like I haven't seen anything before. Anyway, you're a prepubescent boy. There is nothing to see."

Tsuna fainted at that.

**o.o.o.o**

Tsuna opened his eyes and found himself blinking at the white ceiling.

'_I had a dream. I was living fifteen years in the future. I fell down the stairs, met the adult versions of Gokudera-kun, Hatsuon Mei and Kusuri Hana, and that thing in the bathroom… None of it happened. None of it at all.'_

"Tsuna? You awake now?"

Tsuna tried his hardest not to scream. To his left, he saw a man with short black hair, tanned skin and a scar on the left side of his chin.

"Yamamoto!" Tsuna said, starting to tear up. At least there was _someone_ he knew.

"Aha! It's been a long time, hasn't it?" fifteen years later Yamamoto asked, grinning his usual grin.

"Yeah," Tsuna agreed. Looking down, he realised his skin was clean. It wasn't that creepy version of Yukiko now, was it? He had a bad feeling…

Yamamoto chuckled, "You didn't look too good so you had a bath. Don't worry. Didn't see a thing."

Tsuna let his breath out shakily. At least he wasn't stark naked in front of a girl…

"Yamamoto?"

"Hm?"

"What is this place?"

Adult Yamamoto thought for a second, "Well, this is one of the bedrooms. We're only visiting for dinner today. We'll be returning to Italy tomorrow."

"Visiting?"

"Yeah. Hana and I live just across the road, though."

"Huh?"

"We got it right before we got married about three years ago," Yamamoto explained, "Our normal one is still in Italy, though. Our house, I mean."

"MARRIED?" Tsuna honestly couldn't believe his years.

Yamamoto laughed, "That's right, you didn't know. Started dating during uni, and yeah. It just happened. Same for Gokudera and Mei. All of us live pretty close to each other."

"GOKUDERA? MARRIED? TO MEI!" Tsuna yelled at the top of his lungs.

"And Ryohei and Mary-Anne are on their honeymoon now. Reborn's out too." Tsuna could tell that Yamamoto found this extremely funny.

"Everyone got married within fifteen years?" Tsuna asked.

"Well, it's not rare to be married when you're thirty."

"Then, back to my first question. Whose house is thi-"

The door of the bedroom slammed open and Yukiko stood there in all her glory.

"Tsuna. Come. I've got a home visit and I want you to answer a couple of my questions."

"Home… visit?" Tsuna questioned.

"Ah, come back soon though," Yamamoto said, ignoring Tsuna's question, "They won't be happy if you're not there eating."

Yukiko smiled grimly, "Yeah, I'll try. Tsuna. Hurry up."

"Ah…"

"Go on, Tsuna. You'll be back before you know it," Yamamoto grinned before standing up, "I guess I'll go back to preparing dinner. Good luck."

Yukiko nodded in recognition as she and Tsuna walked through the corridors of the home and outside. It was too dark outside to make anything out but what Tsuna _did_ see was a shiny, black and white motorbike with a snowflake pattern.

"This is…" Tsuna asked doubtfully.

"My bike. I'm in a rush so…" Yukiko tossed a helmet at him.

Fumbling, Tsuna caught the helmet and put it on. Yukiko swung her leg over the bike and motioned for Tsuna to do the same thing. Awkwardly, Tsuna copied her action and found himself sitting (quite uncomfortably) on the back of a motorbike.

"Hold onto my waist and don't let go," Yukiko commanded as she revved the bike. Tsuna held onto his dear life as they sped through the darkened streets of Japan.

Tsuna could hardly see in his helmet. His face felt extremely compacted and his hair felt completely flat. Within minutes, Yukiko stopped suddenly in front of a house. Three women were standing outside expectantly.

"Dr. Sujimichi!"

Yukiko nodded in recognition, cutting off the power of her bike and gesturing for Tsuna to get off.

"What's wrong?" Yukiko asked when she and Tsuna stepped inside.

"It's the dog. We think he's a bit sick."

'_A veterinarian?'_ Tsuna thought.

"Where is he?" Yukiko asked.

"At the back," one of the women said.

Surely enough, a big, fat dog was perched lazily on its forepaws. It glanced up disinterestedly before slumping back down.

Tsuna sat in a nearby chair as Yukiko started examining the fat dog. Even without the eyes of a veterinarian, Tsuna could tell the dog wasn't sick but just plain obese.

"Oh my!" One of the women exclaimed suddenly, "I never knew your son was that big already!"

Yukiko frowned, "he's not-"

"Well," a second woman spoke, "Young people these days _do_ have children at such an early age. It's not that much of a surprise!"

Yukiko twitched, "Like I said… He's not my son-"

"Now that I think about it," the third woman spoke, "When did she have a son?"

Yukiko looked up from her work and glared at the three women, "This child is not my son!" she said in a louder tone.

The three women said nothing before the second lady spoke again, "Well, why didn't you say so?"

Tsuna watched as Yukiko's hands twitched, half fearing for the three womens' lives and also half watching in amusement.

"Who is he then?" The first lady asked.

"Ah… He's my husband," Yukiko said, after some thought.

"When did you divorce?"

**o.o.o.o**

Yukiko and Tsuna were back at the house. After a couple of upturned tables, the fat dog being lifted into the air and the women screaming like their lives were at stake (which they actually were, to an extent), they had finally returned, ready for dinner.

"Why did you say that anyway?" Tsuna asked.

"Say what?" Yukiko replied, tucking away the motorbike helmets.

"That I was your… um… Husband?"

Yukiko blinked for a second and opened her mouth to reply before they heard a voice.

"JYUUDAIME!"

Adult Gokudera and Adult Yamamoto were standing by the door of the garage.

"It's about time for dinner," Yamamoto said.

"Shut up, Yakyuu-baka. They told _me_ to tell him. Not _you_."

"Maa maa, Gokudera. We're brothers now!"

"I will never be your brother," Gokudera hissed.

Yamamoto laughed in response, "Come on, Tsuna. Time for dinner. I bet you're hungry."

Right on cue, Tsuna's stomach growled.

"You guys go on first," Yukiko said, "I'll finish off over here after a minute."

**o.o.o.o**

The three of them, Adult Yamamoto, Adult Gokudera and Tsuna, were walking through the winding corridors of… someone's home. Tsuna still didn't know whom it belonged to.

"Hey Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna said.

"Yes, Jyuudaime?" Gokudera's towering figure looked over at small Tsuna who was half-intimidated by the green-eyed stare of admiration.

"Who's home is this?"

Gokudera stopped suddenly, causing Yamamoto to bump into him. After a glare, he looked back at the short brown-haired boy who was waiting for an answer.

"It's yours and Yukiko-san's."

"Mine… and Yukiko-san's?"

"Yakyuu-baka didn't tell you? You two got this place four years ago."

"We _got_ this place?"

Yamamoto grinned and placed an elbow on Gokudera's shoulder, "Hana and I, along with Gokudera and Mei, got married on the same day three years ago. Though they've divorced once already." Yamamoto laughed for a few seconds while Tsuna heard Gokudera mumble a quiet, "stupid woman."

"Ryohei and Mary-Anne got married recently," the Rain Guardian continued, "but you and Yukiko got married four years ago. The six of us gave you this place as a wedding gift. There's a huge picture somewhere around here."

"Wedding…" Tsuna trailed off, "Married… To Yukiko-san… WHAT?"

Up ahead, there was a sound akin to an explosion before promptly afterwards, there was a loud, echoing, yell.

Immediately, Gokudera, Yamamoto and Tsuna ran towards the source.

There stood fourteen-year-old Yukiko in a long, white coat and dirty skin, standing in front of an enormous picture of Tsuna and Yukiko's wedding, which had been mounted on the back wall of the room. Older versions of both Tsuna and Yukiko stared back happily, teasingly. Tsuna turned completely red from head to toe.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" Yukiko yelled.

* * *

**Nice way to end the chapter, no?**

**Next chapter – Target 19: Confusion**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	19. Target 19:  Confusion

**Celebrating Target 19. xD**

**Due to the lack of motivation and a great deal of laziness, after next week's chapter, updates will become irregular and, well, basically this story won't be updated very much.**

**Even so, enjoy target 19.**

* * *

Target 19: Dinner

"So we somehow travelled fifteen years into the future," Yukiko confirmed while Tsuna and Adult Yamamoto nodded twice. The three of them were in a room near the sudden appearance of 14-year-old Yukiko, ready to explain everything. Gokudera had excused himself earlier, apologising thoroughly to Tsuna before heading to the kitchen to finish off dinner preparations.

"And this is our home." Another two nods.

"And you are visiting?" Yukiko asked, turning to Yamamoto, who nodded.

"And you and Hana are married." The same reply again.

"And Mei and Gokudera are as well." Two nods once more.

"And so am I with the midget." This received a nod from Yamamoto and a cough from Tsuna.

"HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT?" she yelled, "AND WHY AM I STUCK WITH THE SHORTIE?"

"I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE IT EITHER," Tsuna yelled back, equally loud, "ANYWAY, YOUR TWENTY NINE YEAR OLD SELF IS SCARIER THAN YOU ARE NOW!"

"SO I'M _SCARY_ NOW?"

Yamamoto grinned awkwardly between the two of them, "Maa maa. Calm down you two. Dinner's going to be ready soon."

" I do _not_ accept this absurdity," Yukiko stated, promptly walking out of the room just to stalk back in and slam the door behind her. Yamamoto and Tsuna looked at her questioningly.

"Get that picture _out_ of here," she hissed, venom lacing her voice.

Yamamoto laughed, "Your adult self didn't like it that much either but she lived with it. After all, how could she defy the six of us who _gave_ her this house?"

Involuntarily, Tsuna shuddered, earning a glance from Yamamoto.

"Are you ok, Tsuna? Do you need a jacket or something?" he asked.

Tsuna looked up, "Ah, no. I'm fine. Just…" _'Remembering what happened in the bathroom…'_

Suddenly, the room of the door swung open haphazardly, revealing a silver-haired, purple-eyed _male_. Tsuna hadn't seen this person before but he had heard Yukiko mention something about a twin brother once or twice when they were locked up. This person was obviously blood-related to her in some way, seeing as not many people had silver hair and purple eyes. Yukiko's head turned towards the person at the door, her eyes widening slightly before she was crushed in a bear hug.

"Yukiko, Yukiko, Yukiko~ I haven't seen you in sooo long," the person cooed, "Why are you so dirty? Did you go out again? Why aren't you at dinner yet? WHY? DID YOU GO OUT WITH THAT BASTARD AGAIN? TELL ME WHY! WHY? WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THAT MIDGET? I'M SO MUCH BETTE-"

"Shut _up_ for a second please, Kiyoshi," Yukiko frowned, attempting, but failing, at moving around to get some room to breathe.

Tsuna felt uncomfortable being in the room at that time while Yamamoto simply laughed. He was fairly sure that this person _was_ Yukiko's twin brother and the uncanny physical similarities between them confirmed his suspicions even more.

"Come to think of it, you shrank a bit, didn't you, Yukiko-chan?" Kiyoshi asked, finally drawing back and examining his sister's face, "Where's the bastard? Isn't he here with you?"

"Ah, Kiyoshi. Something kinda came up," Yamamoto decided to say.

"Something came up? Like what? Was it something good- sorry, bad? Did the bastard get killed? Please tell me he did," Kiyoshi continued to rattle on.

"No, not like that," Yamamoto grinned as Kiyoshi visibly fell into depression, "Somehow, Tsuna and Yukiko-san arrived from the past. They're both fourteen at the moment."

Kiyoshi blinked before staring back at his twin sister and gasping in horror, "What did they do to you? Your face, your skin, your… CLOTHES! THEY'LL GET DIRTY!"

Kiyoshi suddenly realised Tsuna trembling slightly nearby.

"Who's this?" he asked, peering downwards while stroking an imaginary beard, "Could it be… The bastard?"

"It's Tsuna!" Yamamoto said gleefully, failing to receive the pleading glances from Tsuna's brown eyes. Tsuna was sure his life was about to be ended sometime soon.

Twenty-nine year old Sujimichi Kiyoshi, protective twin brother of Sujimichi Yukiko, glared down at fourteen-year-old Sawada Tsunayoshi, Sujimichi Yukiko's husband-to-be.

Suddenly, a glint appeared in Kiyoshi's eyes as he devised a plan to get Tsuna out of Yukiko's life.

"End the kid's life when he's little, preventing him to still be here in the future." At that, Kiyoshi let out a loud laugh and stalked away, muttering to himself and giggling once in a while.

Yamamoto looked at Tsuna. "He likes you," Yamamoto concluded in all seriousness.

Tsuna had never realised someone could be so dense. Even his self was keener than _that_!

"Um… Shouldn't we go to… Dinner?" Tsuna asked uncertainly. They had been chased after and reminded for quite some time, not to mention they actually left the building just to scar three women and their fat dog eternally.

"Can I take a shower first?" Yukiko asked, "This isn't very comfortable."

"Ah, I'll go get some clothing sent up. I bet Kiyoshi could make anything for you in a few seconds," Yamamoto laughed before walking out the door.

"Thanks…" Yukiko trailed off before turning to Tsuna, "Hey midget, don't you think there's something strange about this world?"

'_Midget? That's a new nickname…'_ Tsuna thought before replying hastily, "Obviously. Everyone's changed so much in fifteen years. I still can't believe we got married!"

Yukiko shuddered visibly, "Don't remind me, but that wasn't what I was asking."

Tsuna looked at her questioningly before Yukiko sighed, "As in, everyone's a bit weird, kind of as if they're different people. Kiyoshi's the same, though."

"Maybe they grew more mature. It _is_ fifteen years in the future."

Yukiko frowned, "Everyone seems so calm and they're not surprised that our past selves had popped up from nowhe-"

There was a loud bang as two women stood outside the door. One, Tsuna recognised as Adult Mei, and the other, he assumed as Adult Hana.

"She's so young! And so cute!" Mei almost squealed, reaching out and pinching Yukiko's cheeks. Tsuna guessed that the two women bumped into Yamamoto on the way. He ducked out of the way just in time as Adult Mei and Adult Hana decided to envelop Yukiko in a large group hug.

Tsuna could hardly see the silver-haired mafia boss as she choked out, "Looks like some people still haven't changed after fifteen years."

It was then, that Yamamoto returned with some clothing that was speed-made by Kiyoshi. Mei and Hana bid fourteen-year-old Yukiko a goodbye before walking in the direction of the dining room, discussing intently about dressing poor Yukiko up.

**o.o.o.o**

After Yukiko's shower, in which Yamamoto and Tsuna talked about their day-to-day lives, the three of them headed towards the supposed dining room, with Yamamoto leading the way. Smack bang in the middle of the dining room was a long table, complete with a spotless white tablecloth, plates, bowls, chopsticks and decorative flowers. Lined up along the middle were assortments of different foods and drinks. Attached to the ceiling was a large, golden chandelier that held multiple lights, causing patterns to appear on the walls and ceiling.

Gokudera, Mei, Hana and Kiyoshi were seated, waiting for the arrival of Tsuna, Yamamoto and Yukiko. Mei and Hana gasped at the sight of fourteen-year-old Yukiko but decided to leave questions for later. For now, it was dinner.

Yamamoto gestured for Tsuna and Yukiko to sit on either end of the long table, acknowledging their power in the household. Tsuna sat uncomfortably under the fiery purple glare of Kiyoshi but that aside, dinner started smoothly. Light conversation started around the table as they all ate happily.

"Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked. Gokudera looked up from his bowl of rice and glanced at the Tenth Vongola Boss, "Where's Kirifuda-san, his brother and Mary-Anne's sister?"

Gokudera thought for a second, "Anne-Marie and Teion are in Italy at the moment. Mary-Anne and Hibiki aren't at home and the two of them were asked to watch over their respective houses."

"I see," Tsuna trailed off, "Ryohei and Mary-Anne are on their honeymoon, aren't they?"

"That's right," Gokudera confirmed, swallowing his rice.

"Then where's Kirifuda-san?"

"Hibiki's currently in the Arctic," Gokudera answered immediately.

"The _Arctic_?" Tsuna nearly yelled, making all the heads around the table turn his way. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as they all resumed eating or talking.

"That's right, Jyuudaime. I was told that he likes art and he decided to travel there for artistic opportunities. The paintings along the corridors are all drawn by him."

"Seriously?" Tsuna was in a state of disbelief. He imagined Hibiki somewhere in the middle of the cold Arctic, looking for penguins, with a pencil and paper in his hands.

Dinner continued with no more surprises. Gokudera filled him in on what had happened during the past 15 years and praised Tsuna on his multiple achievements. He had also mentioned that they had travelled to Japan for Ryohei and Mary-Anne's wedding and that they were to fly back to Italy the next day. Gokudera offered to stay in Japan in order to accompany fourteen-year-old Tsuna and Yukiko but Tsuna persuaded him out of it, saying that he should go home to do what he usually did and not to go out of his way to protect him. Besides, from what Yamamoto and Gokudera had told him, their lives weren't in danger in any way.

**o.o.o.o**

The next day, Yamamoto, Gokudera, Hana and Mei were standing in front of a small, private jet plane. Tsuna, Yukiko and Kiyoshi, who refused to stop hugging his sister, bid them goodbye, accompanied with a promise to see them again soon. Work prevented them all from staying back and Tsuna and Yukiko had a lot of papers to sign. Both of them knew that the Cervello were in the fifteen years later world as well and they had to do as much as they could to keep the word of their arrival a secret.

It wasn't until a few days after the departure of the group that Tsuna realised something strange. He felt… empty. Something was missing. He had previously voiced his concerns and Yukiko had agreed. However, neither of them could pinpoint the problem.

Tsuna drummed his fingers against his study table, taking a break from his massive pile of work. Yukiko's twin brother had insisted on making him finish his schooling, purposefully adding mounds and mounds of homework to complete. Tsuna sighed before stretching and resting his cheek on his right fist. The action felt strange even if he had done it many times before. He enjoyed looking at his hard earned Vongola ring and the present he was given by the Arcobaleno…

Tsuna slammed his palm on the table and looked at his hand. There was no ring, nor the small lion growling happily at him.

His rings weren't there.

Kiyoshi happened to be walking past, pleased to see Tsuna in an extremely unhappy state.

"Kiyoshi-san?" Tsuna spoke warily.

Even with his extreme hatred towards the boy, Kiyoshi stepped into the study, immediately conscious of his alarmed voice.

"The rings," Tsuna said softly. Kiyoshi frowned in reaction.

Tsuna's body started to tremble as he held up his hand, which was void of rings, to emphasise his point, "The rings are gone."

* * *

**We've got one more pre-written chapter before we run out. Slower updates might not even happen, depending on my mood during the next week or so.**

**Let's hope I'm bothered to get off my lazy ass and get my act together.**

**But I'm a very "not bothered" person so no guarantees.**

**Next chapter – Target 20: The Rings**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


	20. Target 20: The Rings

**Hello there!**

**First off, thanks for the review, alerts, and favourites. It's been like… the first for so long…**

**82 has not edited this chapter, I think, so I apologise for any mistakes. We didn't quite like how it turned out either and, because of my laziness, I wasn't bothered to rewrite it. 19 has decided to carry on with the story and updates will go by at her speed, whether it's weekly, fortnightly, monthly, I don't know.**

**So, possibly for the last time from me, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Target 20: The Rings

Kioyshi's line of sight immediately shot downwards, staring at his hand in disbelief.

"Where could they be?" he asked, frowning.

Tsuna shook his head, "I don't think I actually had them when I appeared in this world."

"Should you call someone?"

Tsuna eyed the cordless phone on the corner of his desk. He reached over and picked it up while Kiyoshi dug into his pockets for contact numbers. Tsuna punched in the numbers of Yamamoto's mobile and waited impatiently for the dial tone to stop.

"_The number you have called is unavai-"_

Tsuna cancelled the call and immediately looked for another number. Scrawled underneath Yamamoto's mobile was Gokudera's number. Tsuna sighed mentally at the though of the amount of money that was needed to call overseas but emergencies were emergencies.

"_Moshi moshi?"_

"Gokudera-kun?"

"_Jyuudaime! How are you?"_ Tsuna could feel the waves of happiness exuding from the phone.

"Not good at the moment, Gokudera-kun. The rings are missing."

There was a small silence, _"Oh! I forgot to tell you when you arrived in this world. I've g-"_

There were two beeps from Gokudera's side of the phone.

"_Hold on. My phone's out of battery. I'll call you from the home phone."_

"Alright."

Tsuna waited patiently for Gokudera to obtain the home phone, smiling slightly at the conversation between him and Mei on the other side.

"_Oi, woman! Get off the fucking phone!"_

"_What do you mean? I need to call people too!"_

"_This is more important than your petty calls!"_

"_I'm telling Yukiko about this world at the moment. What's more important than information?"_

"_THE INFORMATION I NEED TO TELL TSUNA!"_

"_DON'T YELL AT ME!"_

Tsuna held a short growl from the other side of the phone.

"_OI! DON'T THROW DYNAMITE IN THE HOUSE! YOU'LL BURN IT DOWN AGAIN!"_

"_THEN GIVE ME THE FUCKING PHONE!"_

"_NO!"_

There was an explosion.

"_LOOK WHAT YOU DID! YOU BURNT DOWN THE HOME PHONE!"_

"_THAT'S YOUR FAULT WOMAN, NOW SHUT UP!"_

"Um… Is everything alright there, Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked timidly.

"_Stupid woman wouldn't give me the phone. Anyway, I was meant to tell you that I've g-"_

There was a crackle and an ending tone. Gokudera's phone had run out of battery.

"Dammit!" Tsuna hissed, earning a strange look from Kiyoshi.

"Does Yukiko know this?" Kiyoshi asked as Tsuna shook his head. Kiyoshi cocked his head to the side before raising his voice and calling Yukiko.

"Did something happen with the phone?" Yukiko asked walking into the study almost immediately, "Mei and Gokudera-san were yelling at each other a moment ago."

"I think Gokudera made the phone explode," Tsuna replied, crinkling his nose, "But that's beside the point. The rings are gone."

Yukiko frowned, "Yeah. I only realised when Mei called and talked about this world."

"Sorry to interrupt but I'll go excuse myself. I need to do something," Kiyoshi said, giving Yukiko a hug and a kiss on the cheek before prancing outside.

"Talked about this world?" Tsuna questioned, ignoring Kiyoshi's strange departure.

"Yeah. Don't you find it weird? This world has no weapons. It's immaculate. We don't have rings either. We can't do any harm to others. It's a utopia."

Tsuna unconsciously ran his left hand over his right, feeling the emptiness on his knuckles, "So this isn't really the world we live in?"

"Kind of like a parallel universe, yes."

"Then where are the rings?"

"Mei mentioned something about the government. She thinks that that's where the rings are kept. After all, the rings could cause much harm and the government would want to get rid of them or use them for their own reasons," Yukiko sighed, "It seems like we'll be taking a trip to the government building."

The phone on Tsuna's desk started ringing and both Yukiko and Tsuna stared at it wordlessly. After the sixth ring, Tsuna moved to pick it up.

"Moshi moshi?"

"_Ah. Tsuna-san? Is Yukiko there?"_

"Yeah. Hold on." Tsuna gave the phone to Yukiko silently.

"Hello?" she answered.

"_Yukiko! Sorry about that. The phone exploded."_

"It's fine."

"_I called up Yamamoto-kun a moment ago. We'll be arriving at Japan by tomorrow."_

"Are you sure?"

"_Yeah. We didn't actually take note of the rings until you brought it up today. We'll get them back."_

"Alright. Thanks. See you later."

"_Bye~"_

Tsuna looked at Yukiko as she lowered the phone, "What did she say?"

"We're going to that government building sometime soon."

**o.o.o.o**

"_Please fasten your seatbelts as we are ready for take-off."_

Mei crossed her arms impatiently with Yamamoto beside her. The two of them had packed up, ready to go to Japan in order to take 14-year-old Tsuna and 14-year-old Yukiko to the main government building, situated back in Italy.

"Shouldn't we have told Hana?" Yamamoto asked, hear the small click as his seatbelt became fastened, "She'll be worried."

"I'll go call her."

"But we're ready for take-off."

"I don't care," Mei huffed as she whipped out her mobile. Dialling Hana's phone number, which she had long memorised, she waited for her stepsister to answer the phone.

"_Hi, this is Hana. I can't answer the phone right now so please leave your name, message and contact number after the tone. Thanks, bye!"_

Mei sighed. Hana, being the workaholic she was, never had her phone turned on…

"Hana? It's Mei. Yamamoto-san and I have gone to Japan again. The Vongola and Artiglio rings are missing. We'll be travelling back soon but don't worry. We'll take care of things." Mei noticed a flight attendant staring grumpily at the phone in her hands, "I have to go now. Bye!"

The second Mei hung up the phone, the flight attendant sent one last glare her way before continuing down the aisle.

**o.o.o.o**

Yamamoto and Mei arrived in Japan a couple of hours later. Tsuna and the Sujimichi twins were waiting expectantly, their faces matching the worried looks from the two that had recently stepped off a plane.

"Yo, Tsuna!" Yamamoto greeted happily, disguising his anxiety with an awkward smile. The young mafia boss smiled back sheepishly before Mei started to speak.

"You two will need passports to cross the borders. You obviously can't use your current ones seeing as you're now fifteen years younger," she trailed off.

"But you don't want to interrupt Ryohei-san and Mary in the middle of their honeymoon," Kiyoshi pointed out.

Mei coughed, "emergencies are emergencies. It's important. Besides, Mary's the only one who can forge a passport quickly."

By then, Yamamoto had already taken out his phone and dialled Ryohei.

_Ring ring. Ring ring._

"_Moshi moshi? Yamamoto?"_

"Ah, Ryohei. How's your honeymoon?"

"_HONEYMOON? THAT'S WHAT THIS IS?"_

Yamamoto blinked, "isn't it?"

"_BOOK! SMOKE! ROOM! GIRL! WHAT?"_

"Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying," Yamamoto coughed.

"_WHAT IS THIS PLACE?"_ Ryohei continued to yell.

"Um… Can you give the phone to Mary-Anne, please?" Yamamoto had a slight suspicion as to what was going on.

"_Hello? Yamamoto?"_

"Ah. It's Mary-Anne, isn't it?"

"_Yeah. What happened? Ryohei suddenly disappeared and little Ryohei appeared."_

Suspicions confirmed.

"There's too much to explain but don't think too much of it. Do you think you two can get back to Japan by this evening?"

"_I think so. Yeah, alright. But you better explain everything later."_

"Will do. Bye~"

Tsuna, Yukiko, Kiyoshi and Mei looked at Yamamoto strangely.

"Ryohei and Mary-Anne will be arriving soon," Yamamoto explained, "Ryohei from the fifteen-years-ago world appeared. All we can hope is that Ryohei doesn't cause too much of a problem when they come here, otherwise we'll need to smuggle you two over."

Tsuna shuddered slightly. He was a very honest boy. Smuggling people across borders was a giant leap, was it not?

**o.o.o.o**

Evening came all too soon. By this time, Ryohei and Mary-Anne had still not returned from their honeymoon. Yamamoto decided that it was best to carrying on their trip to Italy without forging passports. As a result, Tsuna, Yamamoto, Yukiko and Mei travelled to Italy, hoping their private jet plane wouldn't be stopped.

"When we arrive in Italy," Yamamoto said, looking at Tsuna and Yukiko, "The two of you will be situated between Mei and I. This way, we can help you if one of you get into trouble."

Tsuna and Yukiko nodded in response.

"We have found out that the ring boxes are kept underground," Yamamoto continued, "Under the Vatican."

"The Vatican?" Tsuna asked.

"The Vatican is where the Pope lives," Mei explained, "Although we're fairly sure the Pope has nothing to do with this, we still don't know why the government chose to place it there of all places."

Tsuna frowned. They were travelling underneath the Pope's home? Was it just him or did he run into a lot of strange situations the second he was forced to be the 10th Mafia Boss of the Vongola Family?

"The plan's simple enough. We break in, take the ring boxes and leave. They're bound to have traps and guards and all but we've got the upper hand in combat."

Everyone stayed silent after this. Not one word was uttered throughout the rest of their trip to Italy.

Not very far away, the Cervello members who had entered Inari's Archive appeared. The pink haired soldiers glanced around at their surroundings, understanding that their plan had worked.

With the Archive, they were able to control future, past and present that had been recorded in that strange door-less building.

The power was all theirs.

* * *

**And that's 20 chapters!**

**I have no idea what the next chapter is called, seeing as I only wrote a paragraph in advance and 19's carrying on. Also, this story has way too much dialogue... I should learn to cut down a bit... A lot...**

**Either way, next chapter – Target 21: _?**

**- 37, MHYHM**

* * *

**Main Artiglio Family (Our OC's)**

_Sujimichi Yukiko – _The founder/leader of the Artiglio Group. She is described as evil, emotionless and gets bored very easily.

_Kirifuda Hibiki_ – The co-founder of the Artiglio Group. Despite the fact that Yukiko is the leader, it was Hibiki who suggested becoming a mafia family. He is described as quiet, mysterious and slightly sadistic.

_Kusuri Hana – _The healer of the group. She is described as cheerful, happy, and smart.

_Hatsuon Mei – _The adopted sister of Hana. For personal reasons, she decided to keep her original last name. She is described as spoilt, childish, somewhat ferocious and has a brother complex.

_Mary-Anne (Mary) Schioppo – _The trickster of the group. She is described as annoying, confident and extremely hyperactive.

**Support**

_Kusuri Kai_ – The biological brother of Mei and adopted brother of Hana. He's the oldest of the support group and the mutual leader. He is described as very smart, kind and mature.

_Sujimichi Kiyoshi – _The older twin brother of Yukiko. He designs and makes all the clothing the Artiglio Family wear and he has a sister complex.

_Kirifuda Teion_ – The younger brother of Hibiki. He is described as cute and is often spoilt by his brother.

_Anne-Marie (Anne) Schioppo_ – The twin sister of Mary-Anne. They are exactly the same, hyperactiveness and all.


End file.
